As the election draws nearer it’s becoming more and more important to encourage everyone to vote this go around.

In regards to the youth vote, The Nation has an interesting piece up about the influence of Rock the Vote on the election this year:

While RTV held the biggest name brand in youth politics, youth turnout declined in 1996 and 2000, and a lot of political minded folks concluded that Rock the Vote wasn’t getting the job done. As described in [the] book, Youth to Power, the vacuum left in youth organizing by the failures of Rock the Vote in part inspired the boom in youth organizing that occurred between 2003 and 2007.

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Nicole did a great blog post about Takepart’s “I am Voting For..” campaign that got me a little curious about some of the other videos folks have made about the issues that are important to them. They’re all great, but I was really struck by Bradley Whitford’s video:

I think what stood out for me was when he said “Really, I’m voting for hearts and minds, think about it.”

Beyond being really great, that quote got me to thinking about a film actually called Hearts and Minds:

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Come November, these famous friends of TakePart and the I Am Voting For campaign will be all about what (not who) they’re voting for, and encourage you to vote the issues ” not the personalities ” this election season. Forget about race, gender, campaign contributions and ill-spoken statements by loose-lipped advisors. It’s time to distinguish the candidates by the issues we care about, and the platforms that they stand on.

Julia Louis-Dreyfus of Seinfeld fame is voting for “a greener world, less carbon emissions and more fuel efficiency” :

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