Chalk Up More Young Voters for Webb
By: Catzmaw
Published On: 10/25/2006 6:32:08 PM
Tonight my 20 year old daughter, who is normally politically oblivious, called me and told me she had great news. Today at work she was hanging around talking to her co-workers, all of whom are in their twenties, and the election came up. Having been exposed to what she refers to as my "relentless prattling" about the campaign, she suddenly found herself answering questions about Webb and Allen. The more she talked about the race the more passionate she felt. She told her Indian-American friend about the macaca comment, and her other friends about the financial costs of the war. She talked to them about "stay the course", the endless loss of life and financial profligacy, and told them they'd be paying for this war into their 80s. By the end of the conversation she had counted six more votes for Webb! She asked me to e-mail some of the campaign commercials from Youtube so she could share them with her buddies.
My daughter told me that none of her friends watches regular TV and none of them has a land line. They are typically disinterested in politics and wondered if they should even bother to vote. She persuaded them that they should because this is really about their futures.
This conversation gave me great hope about how we could win this election if we keep getting people like my daughter to discuss things and enlighten their friends. It also confirmed my suspicion that the polls are really off-base in trying to determine likely voting patterns because none of her contemporaries has a land line and none has any real history of previous political activity. They're under the radar. If we can get them off their duffs and voting they'll be unstoppable.
Tomorrow night my daughter hopes to accompany me to headquarters to sign up and see what she can do for the campaign. In the meantime, I think all us old fogies should pull out the stops and get our older teen and young adult children to talk to their friends and spread the word. An astounding number of these people will not even see the ads on TV and will not be reached by phonebanking. The key is in hitting them through the internet and personal contact.
Comments
great news.... (chiefsjen - 10/25/2006 6:44:41 PM)
what is your daughter doing to ensure those that said they would vote for webb are actually going to make it to the polls -- maybe she could start a buddy system and have a phone tree (via cell phones) to make sure her friends get there!
i'm talking to a bunch of people at work about webb -- i've met him twice and got my picture taken with him so i'm able to make it more personal to my co-workers.
i know at least 10 people in my office that will be voting for webb.
That's a good question (Catzmaw - 10/25/2006 7:03:36 PM)
I will tell her that since her friends are not used to voting they need to find out where their precincts are and make sure they make time to get there. Perhaps, if they are in relatively close precincts, they can organize a little round robin of precinct visitation to be followed by a stop at wherever any celebration may be planned? This seems to be how they approach clubbing. Why not the same for voting? Maybe turn it into a vote party. I'm just riffing here. Would accept any suggestions.
Are they registered to vote? (Eric - 10/25/2006 10:23:14 PM)
If they're young adults they may not have voted previously. Obviously it would suck for them to show up at the polls and be turned away at their first attempt to vote. They may want to check prior to Nov 7.
Even if they're not registered, they can still participate in the GOTV process for the next two weeks.
I asked my daughter about that (Catzmaw - 10/25/2006 10:42:14 PM)
Apparently most of them had mothers like me who checked off the voter registration box when they got their licenses. Good ole mom! A couple are new citizens who registered when they were sworn in.
young voters (drmontoya - 10/26/2006 9:27:26 AM)
I think young voters can be the key to winning this election in Virginia, even nationwide. I even wrote a blog about this here, daily kos, and elsewhere.
However, I didn't get any positive response.
The DNC's target on November 7th, is young voters.
In all of the polling data here in Virginia, we have the biggest swing in support our way from young voters.
On two occasions here, I asked for financial support to host a concert in Richmond with 5 bands to give kids motivation to come vote by presenting an "i voted" sticker.
We can host a capacity of 500 or more.
Still, no financial support.
Well one. I Webb supporter in Iowa.
I need one thousand dollars, even if you can pledge to contribute just 20 or 50 dollars. We can make this concert on election night possible. It will bring young people out to the polls.
And if it's a race decided just by a few hundred votes.
Don't you think thats important?
I am just saying, how bad does everyone want to win?
It's the 4th quarter, we need all our offense on the field.
And that includes young voters.
email me: david.j.montoya@gmail.com for more information or call me at 703.953.4854
GenWebb, Young Democrats -- We Need Your Input (Catzmaw - 10/26/2006 10:58:39 AM)
I haven't seen much interest in the young voter issue, but to me it's glaringly obvious. Is there any possibility of coordinating with the GenWebb people? How about some of the college activists -- young Democrats -- or someone like that? I'm a stodgy 49 year old and have only vague ideas of what will appeal to the young. Maybe you can post another diary dKos, and see if you get any nibbles. I'm not sure what else to do.
Oops, I meant to say drmontoya, not dKos. (Catzmaw - 10/26/2006 11:27:22 AM)
That's what I get for trying to post to blogs at once.