Involver Ready to Rock Youth Vote
From Wired.com – Josh Koenig has outsized, outlandish political ambitions: to use the Internet to create a new civic movement for disengaged younger Americans, whose first act would be to vote the Bush administration out of office in November. As head of technology for Music for America, which is trying to register 1 million young voters on the Web and at rock concerts, Koenig wants to build a loose political alliance on the Web through a new venture called Involver.
Music for America and Knitting Factory Entertainment formed Involver, a loose affiliation of music venues, musicians, artists and political groups. Involver launched its newsletter last week and plans to start posting a national calendar of cultural events soon. Koenig, 25, expects Involver to encourage younger Americans to meet, discuss issues and form their own political agenda.
Other groups: Rock the Vote, Declare Yourself and Redeem the Vote — are also mobilizing young voters in this election. Since 1972, when 18-year-olds first got the right to vote, participation among 18- to 24-year-olds has steadily fallen. In 2000, 37 percent of this group voted, compared with 52 percent in 1972, according to the University of Maryland’s Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning & Engagement.
