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Get Out the Youth Vote
"In a recent Harvard University study, 84 percent of college students SAY they’ll vote on Election Day; that’s certainly an optimistic prediction."
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By Belia Mayeno
The close presidential race in 2000 has invigorated voter organizing efforts across the United States—especially those appealing to young people. But even as the latest research suggests soaring numbers of youth voters this election, there’s a big difference between signing a registration form and actually showing up at the polls. Youth Radio sent reporter Belia Mayeno to research what young people are doing to get out the vote, with campaigns that tell us just as much about youth culture as they do about this year’s election.
My monthly trip to the nail salon is like a half-hour vacation. Like most of my friends, I don’t have a lot of money, but somehow I always seem to be able to scrape together the cash to pay for a visit to the nail shop.
Usually, the biggest decision I have to make at the salon is what color I want to paint my toe nails, not who I want for President.
I go to the salon to get pampered and cute. Corina Jevens is trying to make voting cute too.
CORNIA (on tape)
Our nail files that are included in our kits are pink, purple, and yellow. The slogan on the yellow one says, “Don’t let this election be a nail biter. Vote November 2nd.” On the purple, it says, “Shape the oval office. Vote November 2nd.”
BELIA
Corina volunteers for 1000 Flowers, a non-profit organization trying to entice young single women to get out and vote --by first getting out to local nail and hair salons. She distributes bright pink “beauty kits” with perky postcards, nail files, lipstick, and of course, voter forms.
I hate to admit it, but when I go to a nail shop, I just want to flip through trashy magazines and relax in the foot spa. But Corina thinks young women can be girly-girl and politically powerful at the same time. Still, even she admits, the distance between the beauty salon and the voting booth is a big one.
In a recent Harvard University study, 84 percent of college students SAY they’ll vote on Election Day; that’s certainly an optimistic prediction. But, one thing’s for sure, young people are creating new styles AND content for voter education and “Get Out the Vote” Drives. Adrienne Brown is National Program Director at The League of Pissed Off Voters.
ADRIENNE (on tape)
One of the coolest things we’re doing right now, out in Miami, there’s a group doing a mixed tape voter guide. They give all the local artists little information sheets on different issues, like health care, prison industrial complex, the war, and then those people create songs to inform the community about that issue, and put all those songs on a CD.
BELIA
And you know the informational CDs replace those dull news-print voter guides you get in the mail this time of year. Along with the political music, Miami’s League of Pissed Off Voters puts its printed guide where the CD liner notes should be. League branches across the country label local candidates with ratings like, “Hell Yeah!” and “No Way.” These guides may contain as many profanities as an episode of MTV’s Real World. It’s part of the effort to bring voting to the youth culture—rather than the other way around. But the League’s Adrienne Brown says youth culture is still falling under the political radar screen—especially for pollsters.
ADRIENNE (on tape)
I don’t know if I can even say this word, but I think polling is like, bull.
BELIA
Pollsters call “likely voters,” using land lines, not cell phones--and most young voters I know don’t even have house phones. So Adrienne says no matter how they vote young people will make November 2nd a big surprise.
ADRIENNE (on tape)
I can’t wait for election day to get here. It’s like Christmas.
BELIA
Christmas…with a lot of carpooling—to shuttle young people to the actual voting stations and monitor the polls in highly contested precincts. What happens inside the booths matters a whole lot more than whether we show up with funky pedicures or musical voter guides streaming through our IPODs. The Harvard study says college students currently favor Kerry but are evenly split on approval ratings for President Bush. And with Christian organizations like Redeem the Vote offering free text messaging services to spread electoral gospel among “young people of faith,” everyone’s fighting for a piece of our vote. So we just might surprise you.
In my case, besides poring over news articles and internet research, I’ll get ready to cast my vote by painting my nails with a fresh coat of Final Answer Fuschia.
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