Rock the Vote

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Rock the Vote is a 501(c)(3) non-profit, non-partisan organization founded in 1990. Rock the Vote works to engages youth in the political process by incorporating the entertainment community and youth culture into its activities.^[1] The organization was founded in Los Angeles in 1990 by Jeff Ayeroff for the purposes of political advocacy. Rock the Vote's stated mission is to "build the political clout and engagement of young people in order to achieve progressive change in our country."^[2] The first Rock the Vote campaign was called, "Censorship is UnAmerican." The Canadian version of Rock the Vote was founded by Nat zeke Zavier in 1981, while the Irish version of Rock the Vote was founded by Patrick Cosgrove in 2006, and was active during the 2007 Irish elections.

In 2007, Rock the Vote combined operations with Young Voter Strategies (YVS). Originally a project of The Graduate School of Political Management at The George Washington University, Young Voter Strategies was considered the leading source for opinion polling, tactical research, and demographic analyses of young voters, working to mobilize the 18-to-30-year-old electorate and educate the public, candidates, and consultants on ways to engage young voters.

1 Timeline
2 Celebrity spokespeople
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Timeline

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1991: President George H. W. Bush vetoed a bill for Rock the Vote efforts.^{[citation needed]}

1992: Rock the Vote and its partner organizations registered 350,000 young people and ultimately helped lead over 2,000,000 new young voters to the polls. Election polls that year showed a 20% increase in youth turnout over the prior Presidential election, ending 20 years of declining youth participation.

1993: President Bill Clinton signed a bill which was passed into legislation by Congress for Rock the Vote in support of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, including celebrity advocacy and the distribution of political mailing materials.

1994: Rock the Vote created and distributed over one million free copies of “Rock the System: A Guide to Health Care for Young Americans,” a pamphlet on health issues affecting young people. That year also saw the establishment of the Rock the Vote Patrick Lippert Awards in memory of founding Executive Director, Patrick Lippert, who died in 1993 from AIDS-related pneumonia.

1996: Rock the Vote created the first telephone voter registration system, 1-800-REGISTER, later creating 1-800-ROCK-VOTE to inform callers of local elections offices and how to request absentee ballots or find the appropriate polling place. In conjunction with MCI, they also created the first online voter registration system, called NetVote ’96. Rock the Vote also went on the road with the MTV "Choose or Lose" Bus and registered almost 40,000 voters. All in all, Rock the Vote registered over 500,000 new voters through radio partners, volunteers, concert tours, MTV’s Choose or Lose bus, 1-800-REGISTER, and NetVote ’96. Rock the Vote and MTV also published 200,000 copies of a free, supposedly non-partisan voter guide, educating young people about the issues and candidates in the 1996 election.

2000: Rock the Vote relaunched its online voter registration application on its newly redesigned web site, registering almost 165,000 new voters. For the first time, visitors to the site could apply for absentee ballots, with over 20,000 young people using the service. Rock the Vote partnered with Russell Simmons’s 360HipHop to create Rap the Vote 2000, asking members of the hip hop community to "Register. Vote. Represent." Rock the Vote also created a new series of print announcements, telling young people to "Piss off a Politician," which ran in Rolling Stone, Vibe, Young and Modern, and The Source.

2003: With CNN, Rock the Vote organized "America Rocks the Vote," a Democratic Presidential Candidates Forum at Faneuil Hall in Boston in November 2003.

2004: More than 1.2 million young people used the Rock the Vote website to register to vote. More than 15,000 Rock the Vote volunteers and local partners registered an additional 200,000 voters. Partnering with "VoterCall," Rock the Vote made hundreds of thousands of GOTV contacts to young people who registered through the Rock the Vote website. Rock the Vote also launched, with Motorola, one of the first large-scale mobile phone political engagement projects; more than 118,000 people signed up to get information on their mobile devices.

The group focused on health care issues, encouraging politicians to close the alleged gap on health care availability. During the 2004 presidential election the group drew criticism from Republican Party officials such as RNC chairman Ed Gillespie for sending a mock draft notice to over 600,000 e-mail addresses. The message included the words "Selective Service System" and read "You are hereby ordered for induction into the Armed Forces of the United States, and to report to a polling place near you" on November 2 (Election Day). The Rock the Vote logo and a facsimile of Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's signature appeared at the bottom of the message. In addition, Rock the Vote created public service announcements featuring the subject of the draft.

In a letter to Rock the Vote president Jehmu Greene, Ed Gillespie accused Rock the Vote of "promoting a false and misleading campaign designed to scare America's youth into believing that they may be drafted to serve in the military." Gillespie's also claimed that the "urban myth regarding a draft" had been "thoroughly debunked" by President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and Rumsfeld, Gillespie wrote: "This is the sort of malicious political deception that is likely to increase voter cynicism and in fact decrease the youth vote, as well as raising serious legal issues regarding the political motivations of your efforts."^[3] Rock the Vote replied by pointing out that General John Keane, former Vice Chief of Staff of the US army "says the continued success of the all-volunteer military is not guaranteed." Keane has told Congress that adding more than 50,000 troops to the Army would require thinking about a return to the draft",^[4] and saying her organization wanted an "educated dialogue".

According to the Los Angeles Times, Rock the Vote experienced financial problems in the aftermath of the 2004 election. It emerged from the election $700,000 in debt, and its president resigned in the summer of 2005 "amid disagreements about the organization's direction."^[5] Working with founder Jeff Ayeroff, political director Hans Riemer lead the effort to rebuild for the 2007-2008 presidential cycle before leaving the organization to become the youth director for Senator Barack Obama's Presidential Campaign.

The group states that it is non-partisan. Some people disagree, noting that it promotes books and organizations that are describe themselves to be "progressive" while advocating "progressive" ideas in areas such as jobs, health care, and social security.^[6]^[7]^[8]^[9] The organization's timeline states it was founded as "a response to a wave of attacks on freedom of speech and artistic expression."^[10]

Fred Goldring--a former chairman of Rock the Vote--executive produced the "Yes We Can" video filmed in January 2008. The video was inspired by Barack Obama's "Yes, we can" speech.