Mobilise the vote via Facebook

Now my participation will have no impact whatsoever, but as both a reminder and an endorsement this could have a huge impact on mobilising young voters in the US. The idea is simple, that the Facebook user is invited to donate their status to remind their friends to vote and, if you wish, to vote for one of the candidates in the US presidential election.

The tool is created by Project Agape run by two young men with a history of creating online communities and being involved in grassroots political organisations. I can see it working well in the US, not sure if it would be applicable more widely.

Get a little X

Above is Stockport's slogan designed to get young people voting. Their campaign offers a dowloadable podcast, and the ideas of why the young should vote are being pushed on Galaxy 102 through advertisements and phone-ins. Much effort, creativity and money has gone into a series of similar campaigns around the country aimed at young people, of course the one aspect they do not address is whether the young engage with the campaign itself, identify with the candidates, feel any of them represent them or have similar concerns. Vox pops from the UK suggest this is the major problem, and no amount of gimmicks telling the young firstly to register and then to vote will really help. This user generated two-part video and the opening song posted on Youtube gives a better impression of why the young may not vote perhaps!

Singing for a vote

The Council Tax Band, a group formed out of Wealden Disctrict Council and headed by chief executive Charlie Lant, who will be the returning officer for Wealden, are planning to do gigs before polling day to publicise the election and get people out to put their cross in the box. Lant said:

"I've had enough of people moaning about their local councils but never doing anything about it... This song is our way of reminding people that they do get the chance, every four years, to decide how they want things to be done so don't miss out. Local politics affect everyone's lives and deals with issues which cannot be ignored like waste and recycling, planning, affordable homes, clean streets and reducing crime... Oh, and before you ask, no public money was spent in this recording... The Council Tax Band has high hopes the single will help inspire people to vote"

The 'song' can be downloaded from The Argus website, the article claims, though unless I am missing something it isn't there yet! Shame I was dying to listen to it! So what are the chances of this engaging the voters of Wealden? It is novel, it would be unexpected, its potentially memorable, if they are on the high street on polling day it could inspire some to dash and scribble their cross? I await the turnout results with interest!