In 2001 when I got my license, I distinctly remember pulling my used white 1998 Dodge Neon into the gas station and pumping my tank full of 99 cent per gallon gas for a grand total of 11 dollars. When I was a senior in high school, and I wanted to skip class, I remember having 25 bucks which would get me from Sussex County, Delaware to Philadelphia, Pennsylvannia with enough money left over for a dozen Krispy Kreme donuts, lunch, AND a pack of cigarettes!

When I turned 16 and got my license, my Mom was overjoyed because I LOVED to drive. I mean, I LOVED it. I began taking over the responsibility of grocery shopping. I would get a list of items, about $100 cash, and I had to shop for our family of three and make it last for one week. I was pretty good at it–getting crafty and using my calculator (which has stuck with me to this day) and my little brother loved it because I could usually budget to get him some zebra cakes and myself some perogies.

Today, it is 2008. I am almost 23 years old. My car is a low emissions vechile which gets 25 mpg, and it costs me $45 to fill my tank with gas. I live with my partner and when the two of us go shopping we spend at least $100 per week–and I don't always get perogies. A year or two ago we got those reusable bags, which we use every week. We own 6 of them; yesterday we only able to fill 4 1/2 of them with food on our budget.

Now, don't get me wrong. We are very grateful for our lives. We love our lives, to be exact. But money IS getting tighter and tighter. Every day the gas prices are going up. (Yesterday they were $3.67; today it's $3.71). Milk is $3.59 for a half gallon. Bread is at least $2.50, but if you want something healthy, be prepared to pay more. The number of people eating at soup kitchens has almost doubled in the last year. Is anyone getting the picture????

Food is becoming a problem… people are starving. Our responsibility as Americans is to let our government know when they are letting us down in whatever way they will listen. Voting is important and it is the best way to effectively erradicate corruption from office. But I really believe–heart and soul–that rioting and marching are another responsibility that we have to tell our government when something is OUTRAGEOUS and WE WILL NOT STAND FOR IT. Take a cue from Al Sharpton–who was arrested in the marches he led on behalf of Sean Bell. Where has the heart of America gone? Where is our backbone?

Are we so disconnected that we are willing to suffer in silence rather than to band together and stand for something?

Ben Smith at the Politico is now reporting what Matt Stoller blogged as rumor earlier this week: that the Obama campaign is telling progressive donors to withhold funds from “outside” 527 organizations. At this point it’s inclear whether this means all 527 organizations or all just the media organizations that might run negative campaigns in the fall.

Senator Barack Obama’s campaign is steering the candidate’s wealthy supporters away from independent Democratic groups, calling into question what had been expected to be the groups’ central role in this year’s Democratic offensive against Senator John McCain.

Obama’s national finance chairwoman, Chicago hotel mogul Penny Pritzker, told supporters at a national finance committee meeting in Indianapolis May 2, and in other conversations, not to give money to the groups, people familiar with her comments said.

From the perspective of the Obama campaign, this makes sense. It reinforces their message of rejecting the partisanship of the past and don’t need anyone muddying their message with negative ads. They have a large enough volunteer base geographically dispersed enough to run their own 50-state field campaign (which they already launched this last weekend).

That’s a short-sighted view, however. The Obama campaign isn’t the end-all, be-all of progressive, or even Democratic, politics. He may well have the money and volunteers to pull this off all by himself this year, but will he do the same next year, while he’s busy pushing policy and his name isn’t on a single ballot? Will he lead the media and field campaigns during the 2010 midterms? What happens when Obama is no longer on the ballot? Or if Obama should become an unpopular president and can no longer muster the same forces as we’re seeing now?

One of these things will eventually come pass, and when they do, we will need those “outside” organizations to step up and fill the gaps as they have these last years.

In the realm of youth organizing, there was nothing happening outside of non-partisan voter registration prior to 2003. That was rectified by the creation of numerous 527 and 501c4 organizations during the last election cycle. Presumably these, too, would be defunded if the Obama campaign has its way.

Not all campaigns, will be as successful with youth as Sen. Obama. The state parties are still quite bad at targeting young voters. We will have a hard time maximizing youth turnout without those organizations, and I worry that if these new institutions have funds withheld this year, they will wither on the vine and in a few short years we will be back where we started pre-2003.

Some might argue that Obama is posturing. That this is just a pose to maintain his post-partisan image. That all depends on how serious the donors take him and what they decide to do with their money this cycle. If donors ignore Obama’s statements and give anyway, then no-harm no-foul. The article makes clear, however, that some donors are taking him seriously:

The donors have been considering entreaties from Progressive Media USA, run by conservative-journalist turned liberal media critic David Brock; from former Clinton aide John Podesta’s Fund for America; and from America Votes, a group backed by billionaire George Soros that focuses on voter mobilization, among other efforts.

But in recent days, major donors have begun to conclude that Obama is serious in trying to cut off funds to the outside groups.

“It’s given donors pause,” said one prominent Democratic donor of Pritzker’s words.

Youth organizing is supported by so few donors. Indeed, the big struggle now is to find mid-level donors to help make our new infrastructure more sustainable and less dependent on the whims of one or two funders. If even a few of these funders heed the Obama campaign’s words, it could have drastic effects on the sustainability of our nascent youth movement.

I hope that doesn’t happen.

So, for those of you out there who aren't big gamers, I feel your pain! I am not a big gamer. But my partner is, and he is always reading up on the latest and greatest games, and finding out cool little tid-bits about the gaming world. Every now and then, there is something he tells me about that catches my attention, and is actually pretty cool.

Nintendo Wii is truly a cool gaming system. I mean, you can break a sweat without leaving your living room, and for me, that is news-worthy! I have to admit, I am  impressed with the system and all of it's perks. (Like being able to hook it up to a broadband connection and play with anyone around the world–pretty groovy.)  In today's world, it seems technology is boundless. A couple of days ago, in the dorkiest magazine for gamers, I came across a pretty cool feature of the Nintendo Wii that I had been unaware of: Voting!!!!!

Yes, that's right HeadCounters–it's everywhere! So here's how it works; You have to be hooked up to the internet and there is a section you can access where people all over the US are voting. They are voting for things like, "do you prefer pie or cake" (people actually prefer cake by more than 20%!!!!) And the system gives you the results, and then breaks it down my region as to who prefers what. (Let it be known that people on the East Coast and Deep South prefer to eat pie, and those in the Midwest and West coasts, let them east cake!) Now, while pie and cake may not seem the most relevent issues, (unless it's your birthday) I am always impressed when I see these types of things. It's kind of a funny thing because we seem a culture obsessed with voting. Don't believe me? Just go on your favorite news website. I'll bet you that they have a daily vote….like "Should Hillary drop out of the race?" (That was on www.time.com yesterday.) So, being as such, why don't so many go out and vote in the "biggest vote" our country has? Furthermore, if Nintendo Wii can manage to have an effective vote casting arena…why can't the government???

Already stories of voters being turned away at the polls are popping up. First, a group of nuns were turned down in Indiana for not having proper Identification. Read about it here…

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gRN59j2QQCVZYwfdLSokUeN1K9hQD90GCNHG0

The Student PIRGS just released a group of stories about students that are being turned down at the polls. See below. Remember, your ID does not have to match your registered address and it does not have to be an Indiana state issued ID.

19-year old Angela Hiss, a sophomore and computer science major at the University of Notre Dame, was turned away from the polls this afternoon as she attempted to vote in her first election. After arriving at her polling location, she presented several forms of identification - her school ID, a piece of mail that showed her campus address and an Illinois driver’s license – but was misinformed that she could not vote because she could not show in-state ID. Poll-workers, according to Hiss, also did not advise her that she could cast a provisional ballot, as required by state and federal law. Instead, they suggested visiting local Department of Motor Vehicles to obtain the in-state identification required by Indiana’s newly-upheld law, an endeavor that could take hours, she explained. Furthermore, while the law allows her ten days to obtain the required ID from the DMV, Hiss’s travel plans will not give her time. As a result, she said, she will not be able to vote in the primary.

19-year old Allyson Miller, a sophomore at the University of Notre Dame and volunteer at a local children’s clinic was similarly turned away from the polls today. An Indiana resident since the age of five, Miller left her driver’s license in her dorm room, and arrived straight from class at the polls with her school ID and registration confirmation papers from the County Registrar. Upon arriving, however, poll-workers did not allow her to vote without a state-issued ID. “I plan to come back because voting is a big deal to me,” said Miller, “but it’s a huge inconvenience, especially with a final tomorrow.”

19-year old Becky Jenkins, a sophomore and member of the tennis team at Butler University was also unable to vote in her first election today. “I didn’t know that I had to have an Indiana ID,” she said after she was turned away from the polls for attempting to cast her ballot using a driver’s licenses issued by the State of Illinois. When asked if she would instead cast a provisional ballot, Jenkins also said her travel plans wouldn’t allow her to.

Just a quick reminder for everyone voting in the Indiana and North Carolina Primaries.

If your voting in Indiana, BRING YOUR ID! Remember, this ID card does not have to match the address you are registered to vote at. You can vote as long as you have an ID card. If a poll worker tells you that you can’t vote because your ID card does not match your registered address, THEY ARE WRONG! Insist upon voting and if all else fails fill out a provisional ballot and follow up with your local election board.

If you are having any trouble at your polling place, or finding your polling place in general, please call 866-OUR-VOTE. You can use this number in both Indiana and North Carolina. There are a group of lawyers and election workers on the other end that will help solve any problems you are facing.

Good luck at the polls. Remember, it is your right to vote, and there are a lot of people out there who are trying to stop you from doing so. Dont let that happen!

If you haven’t done so already, Register to Vote at www.HeadCount.org today.

HeadCount operates by partnering with artists to help engage their fanbase and the live music scene. It’s a good strategy. Studies show that peer to peer organizing is the most effective way to engage people in the political process, and who are more our peers than those who listen to the same music and live in the same culture as ourselves?

So what does that look like? Here at Head Count, looking from the top down, it means partnering with artists. It means finding a band with a commitment to our democracy and to making the world a better place, and help them and their fans fulfill that commitment at the ballot box. It’s an organizing model based around an artist’s geographically dispersed fanbase, united by their love of the music and desire to see change.

That’s the view from the top down. It’s a good model. It’s what makes Head Count successful and has registered tens of thousands of voters. But it’s not the only model for organizing around live music, and from the bottom up, the live music scene is anything but geographically diverse or based around individual artists. It lives in tight clusters centered around cities and more specifically the music venues within those cities. For me, it used to be the Wetlands Preserve in NYC - a great venue where, before it closed in 2001, the jamband and hip hop scenes mixed with environmental activism. These are the homes of live music for many. They can also be local centers for change.

This is the other model of music activism - using venues as the local focal point for social change - and there are a number of projects across the country doing just that.

Recently, WireTap magazine sat down with some of those groups as the final installment of a nine-part series on cultural activism. Here’s a few of those organizations and what they have to say about a compelling question: Why Build A Movement Among Youth-Driven Cultural Spaces?

Shannon Stewart - The Vera Project - Seattle, Washington

I echoed a lot of what had been said, and added something of a social urban planning perspective, “I think about space — like physical space — and its role in cultural change and social change. For The Vera Project, I feel like the space was what was holding the possibility for there to be social change within that cultural community.”

And of course, it’s how you hold and shape the space that matters. In Seattle, aside from producing music, spaces like Vera also tackled mass voter mobilization efforts that changed the course of elections, community responses to sexual assault, strong alliance-building for youth rights and liberation, anti-war protests and anti-globalization organizing. Connecting young people through art — and in a space that was set up unconventionally — created a platform for people of different identities and communities to come together and tackle hard issues, alongside of nurturing new sounds, artists and aesthetics.

Lori Roddy: Neutral Zone - Los Angeles

Lori explained how she is trying to understand culture’s function in her work, “I think [culture] is sort of a consciousness of the way that people think, the way they understand the place that they live in and the way that they interact with one another. It’s the way they express their interaction or the way they sing, the way they write, or the way they perform. It’s a way of internalizing and understanding the way things are. And to change that internal hegemonic perception of [culture] is a big piece, I think. Social change then to me is identifying more of the actual policies, practices, and laws. … With that definition, the Neutral Zone is really functioning more on the cultural change [side]. It’s raising the consciousness of young people, [affirming] that they are competent, capable individuals, that they should have ownership. They don’t have to wait to be adults.”

Gavin Leonard: Elementz - Cincinnati

Gavin went next. “So the crux of it is … does the organization see itself as doing cultural or social change work? … Probably, actually, neither. … Our mission is to inspire and engage. You can’t make cultural change unless you have a culture and are connected with people or, like I say to people all the time, that Elementz is this youth center that has street credibility and then pretty much all I do all day is figure out how to define street credibility.” Gavin explained that street credibility is what helps an organization like Elementz get connected with young people, helps young people get connected to one another to create their own culture, and also connects them to the power to make change.

Kevin Erickson: Department of Safety - Washington State

Kevin Erickson from the Department of Safety in Anacortes, Washington, added, “Well, the Department of Safety in its founding was sort of operating on a lot of different levels. They wrote manifestos and deployed all this Marxist rhetoric, meanwhile maintaining a radical humility about their actual expectations about what they would be able to accomplish. Now, I think that we’re permanently radical by virtue of existing where we exist and by doing the kind of work that we’re doing in the place that we’re doing it. I think it’s indicative of the current state of cultural politics in America today [that] we have left rural areas out and the red states have been defined as cultural wastelands. [So] by putting together [an argument] that, ‘No, actually the town you are in is valuable. You and your friends are capable of doing really good things,’ it tends to break down that binary between social and cultural by really shortcutting the fundamental dynamic at work.”

There is a lot more on the way that culture can bring about change, and the role that a physical space/community out of which to organize plays in that change. Go read the whole piece.

Just wanted to drop a quick post about some of the exciting things that have been happening recently within HeadCount.
It started Saturday when we got word from Pearl Jam that they agreed to be an offical HeadCount band. Normally this means that the band puts our “Register to Vote” button up on their website, provides us with access to their shows in order to set up a table and register voters, and provide any additional support they want. Pearl Jam took the extra step. They decided to bring a HeadCount volunteer on tour with them for their entire spring tour! This means a HeadCount volunteer will ride on their tour bus from city to city and meet up with local HeadCount volunteers at each show. Its going to be a pretty incredible experience and you can apply now at www.HeadCount.org.

On Sunday HeadCount broke its previous single day registration record by registering over 500 people. The majority of these registrations came from the Green Apple Festivals in Washington D.C., San Francisco, Boulder, and Chicago. Over 250 coming in from Chicago alone. The Green Apple Festival was an overall huge success and we were extremely grateful to be a part of it.

Then early this week, at a most convenient time with all these great things happening, the latest Rolling Stone magazine came out with “The Best of Rock 2008″ cover. Turn to page 18 and you will see a half page article dedicated to the HeadCount benefit recently held in Washington D.C. where Bob Weir signed autographs and performed a short solo acoustic set. Special thanks to our new publicists Dave and Colin at Giant Noise for getting us the spot in Rolling Stone.

Look out for more HeadCount in the news when we issue our press release announcing our new bands and future plans.

With the PA primary coming to a frustrating end, I am wondering what the end will be, but, more importantly, who is REALLY going to decide this election: popular vote, or the super delegates??

It pains me to think that we may have another upset, but the sad truth is that congress can highjack our election. This smacks of a greater problem which needs to be addressed; many voters are going to feel disenfranchised if popular vote doesn't win out (again). The last 8 years have been a trying time, and whether or not you support Hillary or Obama, (or McCain?), I think that there is a general consenus of what needs to happen in the county–some kind of change! It is hard for me to imagine that the super delegates would choose someone who doesn't hold popular vote, but the thought scares me nonetheless.

Then there is the issue of the race itself. I think that the PA primary has left me more frustrated than anything else, but the worry set in yesterday as well. The Democratic Convention isn't until August! If we let this whole democratic nominee election go until then, then we only leave 4 weeks until the first debate with McCain, which is a bad idea. We will also lose valuable campaign time, ie- the entire summer! I look at the candidates, and I see an increasingly bitter woman who is dragging out the race in an effort to salvage her own ego. I am a little disgusted with the behavior of someone who has presented herself with such poise in the past. In fact, I began this whole run as a Hillary Clinton supporter….but her behavior became so erractic– nay, desperate– that I began to wonder. And it took me only a few weeks to jump the fence after hearing the fervor and passion that Barack Obama spoke with. It's not that I am without compassion. I mean, Hillary thought that this would be her year. She has been waiting for her golden moment in the sun, and now it is seemingly snatched from under her–by a younger, swifter, more able opponent, and she never saw it coming! Oh, and let's not forget, she is using a take-off from the Obama campaign stating yesterday in a "victory" speech "Yes, we will!" Tasteless, at best…

I certainly don't have the answers…only opinions, but I really feel that all of this is dividing the party and making for a horrible start. If Hillary really cared perhaps she would (at the very least) stop the attacks on Obama so that, either way, the party will back the winning candidate….

 I really think it is time for her to throw in the towel.

Greetings everyone! I’m John Z., the Washington, D.C. Team Leader for HeadCount. Thanks for checking out our blog!

Like many of our volunteers, unfortunately I have a day job that doesn’t entail going to concerts. Luckily, however, I work at small polling firm that does public opinion research. While most of our work is on behalf of our corporate clients, I do spend at least a day each week looking at polling data for the upcoming election. I figured I’d use this space to share some interesting findings from the world of polling that relate to you, the Young Voters who are Our Future (sorry for the cheesy turn of phrase, it was too tempting).

I thought I’d draw your attention to a story from today’s New York Times that portrays today’s primary contest between Obama and Clinton as a generational struggle. Exit polling data from the previous Democratic primaries does support the seemingly-obvious notion that young voters break for the young candidate. Why do you think that is? My opinion is that it’s mostly due to the simple appeal of a young candidate who just seems like someone intelligent who you’d want to get to know, but I also think Obama’s deft use of the Internet to both spread his campaign message virally and raise record amounts of money to pour back into those efforts has allowed him to energize young voters.

If all politics is generational, then these are exciting times to be a young voter. This awesome, in-depth report from Rock the Vote and CIRCLE shows that a historic number of young people voted in the 2006 midterms. The 9% surge over 2002 shows that young people are increasingly engaged and participating in the political process. There’s also a bunch of other encouraging data about the youth and minority voter turnout. In a time when elections are decided by a few hundred thousand votes, getting out and voting matters more than ever.

All sorts of socio-cultural theories have been floated as to why Generation X has the lowest turnout of any cohort of voters when in the 18-29 year old range, but they’re no more than (sometimes educated) guesses. Why do you think people under 29 are voting in record numbers? If you chose not to vote in previous elections but have voted in this primary or are volunteering with HeadCount, why did you choose to get involved?

If you ever have any questions about polling data or methodology or about something you read or see in the news, feel free to email me at JohnZ@headcount.org and I will gladly answer them on this blog. I’ll be back later with some more polling-related stuff.

One little disclaimer: anything written here is solely my own opinion and is not that of either HeadCount or the Lombardo Consulting Group.

Earlier this year, I started reading Chuck Klosterman. He generally writes essays or articles about post-modern pop culture (for a better sense of what this means, read Sex, Drugs And Cocoa Puffs). Typically Klosterman pens essays that are laugh out loud funny and that do not explicitly address politics. The closest that Klosterman comes to politics might be his argument that you could figure out your position on an issue based upon which team you prefer in the old school Lakers-Celtics rivalry, or his description of his experience watching live a taping of the McLaughlin Group.

By way of the Hidden Track blog, I recently discovered that Klosterman regularly contributes to Esquire and an archive of his writings for that publication could be found at Esquire.com. Earlier this week, while taking a much needed mental break at work, I read an essy that Klosterman wrote in 2006, entitled “Invention’s New Mother,” available at http://www.esquire.com/features/ESQ0306KLOSTERMAN_124_2. The general premise is that everything necessary has already been invented, therefore making modern invention an exercise in creating things that people never thought that they wanted or needed until they started using the item. By way of example, Klosterman provides a discussion of his experience with text messaging, something with which we could all identify.

So what does any of this have to do with voting or the 2008 election? Klosterman addressed invention, but he got me thinking about re-invention. Perhaps everything necessary has been invented. But it is quite clear that much of what has been created has yet to be perfected. One such creation is the system of democracy employed in the United States. And the system for voter registration and the methods employed that affect whether a registered voter is permitted to actually vote on election day. This year, voters in the remaining primary states should use the opportunity to determine what imperfections could be corrected before November.

Without attempting to list even a fraction of the deficiencies, I’ll tell you what I’ve learned from personal experiences just this year. I was in South Carolina for the Democratic Primary, and in New York on Super Tuesday, in both instances manning voter protection hotlines. On each day, the overarching lesson was that registered voters are not always on the voter registration list at their polling place. Life-long voters get purged from the voter registration list without being told in advance and first time voters not infrequently don’t make it onto the voter registration list even though they have received a card in the mail telling them that they had successfully registered to vote. According to the Brennan Center for Justice and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, in places like Brooklyn, New York, life-long voters arrived at the polling place at which they have always voted, only to learn that their name was purged from the registration list. If you take a few minutes to peruse the Brennan Center’s website (brennancenter.org), you will notice that since the Help America Vote Act (”HAVA”) was enacted in 2002, numerous would-be voters get removed from voter registration lists in various states for various reasons, including simple human error.

The worst part about voters being purged from the rolls is how poll workers handle such situations. If your name is not on the list, it does not necessarily mean that you cannot vote. But the volunteers at polling locations on election day are very often ignorant or misinformed of their state’s rules. If you are not on the list, but are registered, some states allow you to vote using a paper ballot that has a presumption of validity. Other states allow you to vote using a provisional ballot or affidavit ballot that has a presumption of invalidity. Despite what the pollworker may tell you or the presumption associated with the type of ballot, neither case means that the paper ballot automatically does not count. It also does not mean that casting that ballot is a waste of time. Even if the vote does not get counted, there are steps to take that will help non-partisan organizations determine whether there is a greater problem in your county or polling place that bears addressing.

If this happens to you, there are a few things that you should do to help improve the system in your county or state:

(1) You should demand to vote, regardless of what the pollworker tells you.
(2) You should re-register to vote, so that you know that you will not experience the same problem in November.
(3) You should report the problem to a non-partisan organization, such as the National Campaign for Fair Elections, an initiative of the Lawyers’ Committee For Civil Rights (1-866-OUR VOTE). The great thing about this organization, and others like it, is that they are available to assist you if you call while you are at your polling place and the poll worker is attempting to turn you away.

The National Campaign for Fair Elections recruits volunteer attorneys and law students and trains them to participate in a voter protection hotline for many of the primaries, as well as for the general election in November. The organization’s press release regarding its plan for the Pennsylvania primary is available here: http://www.lawyerscommittee.org/2005website/publications/press/press041108.html. My understanding is that the organization has already started recruiting volunteers for similar voter protection programs for the primaries in Indiana and North Carolina taking place in early May.

Whether you are registered as a member of the Democratic or Republic Party, or unaffiliated in a state that allows unaffiliateds to vote in a party primary — and even if you think that your vote in the primary will not impact your party’s choice of nominee for the general election — you need to take your county for a test run because not all counties or polling places are created equal. By voting and testing the process in April or May, you could make it easier for yourself and others to vote in November.

Numerous aspects of our voting system are far from perfect, but you could help improve some of the problems by helping to identify them early.