I had been meaning to write a diary about this idea a while back, but seeing this Ben and Jerry's Ad got my wheels spinning again:
Come to participating scoop shops on November 4th from 5-8pm, show us you voted and you'll get a free scoop of ice cream. Show us your "I Voted" sticker, a photo of you in front of your polling station, do the "I Voted dance" or just tell us you voted
Now I don't know what kind of election laws potentially stand in the way of expanding upon an idea like this, but I think it could have a powerful effect. Every election there are similar "show us your vote" giveaways etc., although usually on a smaller level, i.e. a free drink at a bar, a free game of bowling, discounted movie tickets etc., but if a company the size of Ben and Jerry's can offer an incentive, that leads me to believe that other large companies can as well. Here's my thought.
We need the youth vote. Every election, there are all kinds of signs pointing to a huge increase in youth voter turnout (which always heavily favors the dems) and to everyone's disappointment, it never materializes. For whatever reasons, they don't want to wait in line, they decide they have better things to do, etc., they never materialize in the kinds of numbers that would really make a difference. Now maybe this year will be different. But just to make sure, why can't there be some incentives to vote, geared towards the youth vote? Obviously we're just trying to get people out to vote, not telling them how to vote.
But imagine if a company like Apple for example, decided to give away a $20 iTunes card for everyone that showed up at an Apple store on Nov 4 -6 or something with an "I voted Sticker". It would be generate huge publicity and I'd be willing to bet an incentive like that would be enough to bump up the youth vote totals enough to where it could make a real difference. Now that's just one example, but you get the idea. So what do you think? What kind of legal ramifications/obstacles could get in the way of such an idea. Any thoughts?