AFGE Looks to Web to Reach America's Youth (voter protection information for November!)

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/afge-looks-to-web-to-reach-americas-youth,434090.shtml

WASHINGTON, June 16 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- In order to get voter protection information to a younger demographic the American Federation of Government Employees today launched MySpace and Facebook pages. The MySpace page can be found at www.myspace.com/afgevoterprotection and the Facebook page is titled "Voter Protection" (you must be registered to view the page). Both pages include voting tips for students, links to related movie trailers, a slideshow of different voter coalitions, and links to student groups in the swing states.

"AFGE sees college students as a driving force in this year's presidential race, which makes it important that they understand their rights and responsibilities as voters," said John Gage, President of AFGE.


AFGE recognized the need for a medium that would appeal to a younger audience, while still getting the intended messages across. MySpace and Facebook are social utilities used by a majority of the targeted demographic as ways to keep in touch with friends, blog, network, and stay abreast of the latest trends.


The most important aspect of AFGE's MySpace and Facebook pages is "Student Voting Tips." The tips created by two of AFGE's own student interns, are meant to inform students about the voting process, the variety of voting options, and encourage participation this November. There have been past incidents where students were turned away from the polls by people of higher authority and because these students were newer to the voting process they did not fully understand their rights.


"College students will account for a large portion of the voting population this election year. Most of them are new voters, making them easy to deceive," said Andrea E. Brooks, National Vice President of Women's and Fair Practices. "It is our objective to have more of these students successfully cast a ballot."


In addition to voting tips there are links to other resources, including different ways to access the different state's board of elections and information for students in the major swing states.


"The hope is that both the Facebook and MySpace pages will capture students' attention and successfully inform them about possible voting situations," said Brittany Ellis who, along with Yasmin Fletcher, is an intern at AFGE and creator of the pages. "We want students to be prepared when it's their time to vote."

For more information on voter protection, please visit www.afge.org or http://wfp.afge.org.