For Immediate Release: February 4, 2008

Super Tuesday Campus ‘Get out the Youth Vote’ - Schedule of Events and Student Leader Profiles

For more information and interviews contact:
Sujatha Jahagirdar (323) 309 6120
Dave Rosenfeld (310) 210 8410

Student volunteers across the country will be out in force today and tomorrow – storming classrooms, dorms and campus quads.  Their goal – get out the youth vote on Super Tuesday.

Since the spring of 2007, student leaders with the Student PIRGs’ New Voters Project have worked feverishly to wire local campuses with the ‘Get out to Vote’ message.  Tapping into a tech-savvy generation, youth vote organizers are using Facebook, MySpace, and text messages to reach their peers.  From conga lines to get-out-the vote Mardis Gras festivities, students are also plastering campuses with polling place information, hopping on their cell phones and holding visibility events to urge young voters to the polls.

In a final push to mobilize the youth vote the Student PIRGs will organize voter mobilization events in nine key primary states – California, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Connecticut and Missouri.  A sampling of event descriptions is included below.  For a complete schedule, contact Sujatha Jahagirdar.

Sampling of Get out the Vote Efforts Across Country

National

‘Text out the Vote’ Day and ‘Bring Your Cell Phone’ Phonebanks

On Monday and Tuesday student leaders across the country will invade classrooms to ask students to text message their friends to get out to vote.  On Monday night students will also organize ‘bring your own cell phone’ phone banks in a last minute reminder to show up to the polls on Election Day.  For specific times and locations in states of interest, please contact Sujatha Jahagirdar at (323) 309 6120.

California

Student Conga Line to Campus Polling Place
University of California, Berkeley
February 5th, 12 pm
Start point – Lower Sproul Plaza, End point – MLK Jr Building, 2475 Bancroft Way, Side C

Happy Super Fat Tuesday! Event
University of Southern California. Trousdale Parkway
February 4th & 5th, 10 am – 3 p
Merging the celebration of Mardi Gras with Super Tuesday, this event will feature a ‘toss the beads on the presidential candidates’ activity, as well as students sporting ‘Vote’ signs and handing out ‘vote’ wristbands and beads to students passing by.  Students will also plaster the campus with multicolored stars that say ‘Happy Super Fat Tuesday! Vote Today!’ and set up a giant map that point students to where they can vote. 

Massachusetts

Uncle Sam Voter Registration Table
University of Massachusetts, Amherst
February 5th, 10 am – 3 pm
Using an ‘Uncle Sam’ costume and a large poster that says ‘UMASS Votes!’ to draw attention, students will stop their peers on the way to class to remind those registered to vote and register students who haven’t yet.

Colorado

Homer Simpson Voter Registration Table
University of Colorado, Denver
February 4th, 1:15 pm – 4:00 pm
North Classroom Atrium Area
Using a large Homer Simpson cut-out with a thought bubble that says ‘MMMM Caucus,” student volunteers with COPIRG will partner with student government to collect pledges to caucus from their peers on Tuesday.  Volunteers will also hand out information sheets to students on how and where to caucus.

‘How to Caucus’ Campus Training
University of Colorado, Boulder
February 4th, 6:30 pm
UMC Room 353
After the caucus training, for which students will be fliering, chalking and postering all day Monday, students will organize a post-training phone bank to remind their peers to vote the next day.

Connecticut

‘Get out the Vote’ Table
Trinity College
February 5th, 5 pm – 7 pm
Mather Dining Hall, 300 Summit Street
Student volunteers with CONNPIRG will hand out ‘Vote’ wristbands to their peers passing by and reminding students to vote.

New Jersey

“Take a Shot of Democracy” Get out the Vote Table
February 5th , 11 am - 4 pm
Brower Dining Hall.
Student volunteers will ask their peers to "Take a Shot of Democracy" (red and blue soda in cups labeled with the local polling place), and to pledge to vote.

‘Get Out The Vote’ Visibility Party
Rutgers College, College Park
February 4th, 5 pm -6 pm
RSC 4th floor lounge
Student volunteers will gather to make ‘footprints to the polls,’ balloons to tie up across campus with polling place information, and "Oscar the Grouch" vote signs for garbage cans across campus.

New Mexico

Pledge to Vote Event
University of New Mexico, Albuquerque
Smith Plaza
February 4th 11-2 pm
Students will set up a table on the main campus thoroughfare to ask students to sign a large ‘Pledge to Vote’ banner

Senator Hillary Clinton What’s Your Plan? Candidate Trail Event
University of New Mexico, Albuquerque
February 4th, 2 pm
Student volunteers will attend a local rally organized by Senator Hillary Clinton to ask – What’s Your Plan to stop global warming?  The event is the latest candidate trail event organized by NMPIRG’s What’s Your Plan? event which has asked all the major candidates to engage young people directly in the issues we care about more than 100 times.

Arizona

Pledge to Vote, Pre-Primary Poll
University of Arizona
February 4th, 11 am – 2 pm
University of Arizona Mall
Students will set up a large (7x4ft) Pre Primary Poll where students can write shout outs to their candidates and place a pre primary vote

Idaho

Ask the Candidates – What’s Your Plan? Video and Photo Shoot
University of Idaho, Moscow
February 5th
Location, Time TBA
Students will organize a campus photo and video shoot to ask their peers to ask the presidential candidates ‘ What’s Your Plan?  To make a college education affordable. To stop global warming. To address financial security for all Americans.  To provide effective, affordable healthcare. 

Missouri

Classroom ‘text out the vote’ blitz
Meramec Community College
St. Louis
All Day
Students will invade classrooms to encourage their peers to vote, text their friends the GOTV message and hand out fliers explaining state ID requirements.  Student volunteers with MOPIRG will also walk around campus handing out beads – combining Tuesday’s Mardi Gras festivities with a final push to vote.

Profiles of Youth Vote Student Leaders

Mike Reagan, 21 – In the 2006 mid-term elections, Mike lead one of the largest voter registration efforts that the University of California, Davis had ever seen, registering 1,500 young people to vote.  A college senior, Reagan was energized after testifying this fall before Congress regarding the threat posed by global warming to his generation.   This election he is helping to lead a voter registration and mobilization effort  on campus that will use registration tables,  classroom ‘text out the vote’ announcements, web ‘flash mobs, ’ costumes and other visibility stunts to register students and build a voting ‘buzz’ on campus for February 5th.

Sarah Dobjensky, 19 – After spearheading a 1,500-student voter registration drive in the 2006 mid-term elections, Dobjensky went on to lead a campus effort to educate fellow students about student debt issues and the need to reduce college costs.  Since April, she has also mobilized groups of students on campus to attended events fundraisers, town halls and photo-ops organized by presidential candidates to ask about issues important to youth.  The effort, part of CALPIRG’s What’s Your Plan? Campaign has talked to all the major candidates more than 100 times.

Emily Schosid, 20 - Junior at the University of Colorado at Boulder.  Emily has been working with CoPIRG since 2006 on various public interest environmental campaigns. She is currently the coordinator of CoPIRG’s Campus Climate Challenge campaign at CU Boulder, and is planning to mobilize thousands of students on campus to take concrete action to fight global warming both on campus and throughout the state.  This fall Emily also helped to organize a group of twenty CU Boulder students to attend a Hillary Clinton rally in Denver as part of CoPIRG’s What’s Your Plan? campaign.

Andrea LeClair, 22 - Senior at Westfield State College in Westfield, MA.  Andrea has been involved with MASSPIRG since mid-October of 2007.  During a national student conference on climate change this fall, she lead a team of her peers to lobby congressional representatives for strong global warming policy.  Andrea is also a participating member of the Massachusetts Youth Climate Action and a demonstration at Citibank

Brantley Hawkins is a sophomore at the University of Connecticut who is spending part of his winter break to bring out the youth vote in New Hampshire.  Hawkins is a youth vote leader on his campus, working with a CONNPIRG coalition to increase voter turnout on campus by over 700 percent on his University of Connecticut Campus.  He also helped to organize fellow students to appear at candidate trail events attended by Governor Mitt Romney and Senator John McCain to ask their plans to address issues important to young people.

Sarah Clader, 21. This fall Sarah, a senior at Rutgers University, spearheaded efforts to register 3,000 students statewide to vote, training students to make class presentations, run dorm storms, and register their peers out on campus.  Sarah also coordinated the New Jersey Public Interest Research Group’s (NJPIRG) What's Your Plan? campaign at Rutgers, taking the concerns of young people directly to the candidates. She organized students to attend a Barack Obama event in New York City to ask him: What’s Your Plan? to stop global warming and address financial security for Americans.  Sarah has led efforts to register and turnout young voters with New Jersey PIRG since her freshman year and she serves on the Student PIRGs' New Voters Project Advisory Committee alongside Frank Fahrnekopf, Jr., former RNC Chair, and Vice President Walter Mondale.

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The Student PIRGs are independent state-based student organizations that work to solve public interest problems related to the environment, consumer protection, and government reform.

The Student PIRGs’ New Voters Project is the nation’s largest youth voter mobilization program.  Since 2004, we have registered more than 600,000 young people and made more than 650,000 peer to peer voter turnout contacts to get young people to the polls on Election Day. Due in large part to our efforts, the youth vote increased by 4.3 million votes, or 9% in 2004 and an analysis of our work in 2006 found that in the student dense precincts in which we worked with our allies, youth voter turnout increased on average by 157%.