Welcome to the newest diary in the GOTV series and thank you for stopping by. We are very fortunate to have the indomitable Sandra Fluke as our guest who has recorded a terrific video about the need for younger voters to turn out at the polls. She is, of course, running for State Senate in California and we will be lucky to have her there. The transcript, link to her campaign and a link to register to vote are below the fold. I now turn this over to Ms. Fluke.
I also want to say thank you to all the terrific guest writers and the very supportive Kossacks who have dropped by and helped out. I especially want to give a hat tip to Peregrine Kate for all of her excellent suggestions and ideas for this diary. Our next diary should be "Save the Senate" which is planned for next week.
Let's make sure we have a lot to celebrate this holiday season!
TRANSCRIPT:
Hey everyone, Sandra Fluke here.
I wanted to take a few moments out from the campaign trail to talk to you about something that I’m concerned about: which is not enough young people showing up to our polls this November for the midterm elections.
Now I know, this is not a new topic, not a new concern. Unfortunately as young adults we don’t have a great track record on voting in absolutely every election the way we should. But here is the thing- it seems the problem may actually get worse. A recent study showed that fewer than one-in-four – only 23% - of Americans under 30 are actually definitively planning to vote in this year’s midterm elections.
Now that is not just a problem because we’re losing out on a certain number of votes. That’s a problem because we’re losing out on a particular perspective. We, as Millennials, have a progressive set of values. We deeply care about making progress on climate change, we’re more likely to be in favor of marriage equality, we’re ready to fight for reproductive justice, and we absolutely need progress on college affordability. So when we don’t show up to the polls, those are the voices that aren’t heard, and our elections are decided by a group of voters with very different values from ours.
And that matters, because up and down the ballot, elections matter for years to come. It’s actually the state and local levels where most of the policy issues that we really care about, and that really impact our lives, are being decided. But those are the elections that we’re even less likely to vote in. And we’ve seen the consequences when we don’t show up to vote. Unfortunately young adults are much better at being excited about Presidential election years … and in midterms… well, do you remember 2010? Do you remember the shellacking? That’s not what we’re looking for this year. So we really need everyone out at the polls.
And frankly, this time around, I really need everyone out at the polls. I actually just came through a primary as a candidate here in California. Very, very proud to be moving on to the general election. But I need to know on November 4th all of you are going to be there with me. Because in our primary, we had less than 20 percent of registered voters show up to the polls. And trust me, every vote counted. And every vote will count this fall.
So please, get registered to vote. If you have any questions, go to our website http://www.standwithsandra.org click on Get Involved, and register to vote! You can get all of your questions answered there and I’ll see you at the polls on November 4th. Thank you!
ACTION STEPS:
SANDRA FLUKE'S CAMPAIGN (as noted in the transcript) : She would welcome any volunteers or donations. And you can volunteer from afar as her campaign is set up for virtual phonebanking. http://www.standwithsandra.org/...
REGISTER: Please make sure you are registered to vote and pass this link along anywhere you think useful. http://www.rockthevote.org/
The NAACP has told me that some of their college chapters may be sponsoring voter registration drives. Please contact the campus chapter of your choice if you want to volunteer.
RAUL GRIJALVA was our most recent guest author. This is a link to that diary which contains a link to the previous one. http://www.dailykos.com/...
REPOST all or part of this diary to any pages, sites, twitter or send to any friends you think helpful.
Onward!
11:13 AM PT: UPDATE: Taking a break for a while...lunch.. life. Will check in later. Many thanks for all who stopped by/best/sh