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AFGE Launches Voting Rights Pages on MySpace, Facebook |
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Record numbers of young people are signing up to vote for the first time, and the union movement is making sure their votes will be counted.
In past elections, some college students have been denied the right to vote because local officials questioned whether they were full-time residents or if they were voting at the right precinct. So last week, AFGE launched pages on two popular social networking sites—MySpace and Facebook—to ensure students have the information they need to make sure their votes are counted.
Both sites include “Student Voting Tips” created by Brittany Ellis and Yasmin Fletcher, two AFGE student interns. The tips inform students about the voting process, outline voting options and encourage them to participate this November.
The MySpace page can be found here, and on Facebook, search for “Voter Protection” (you must be registered to view the page) and add as a friend. The pages also include links to related movie trailers, a slide show highlighting voter coalitions and links to student groups in key swing states.
Says AFGE President John Gage:
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.
In addition to voting tips, the sites include links to other resources, such as the state board of elections and information for students in the major swing states.
AFGE Vice President Andrea Brooks adds:
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. It is our objective to have more of these students successfully cast a ballot.
Richard at the labor-oriented Union Review blog says MySpace and Facebook are two new media tools unions should use to get their message out to different groups.
The AFGE effort complements the AFL-CIO’s 2008 Voting Rights Protection Program, the My Vote, My Right campaign, which helps ensure votes cast at the ballot box are properly counted, especially those in communities where the public’s political will repeatedly has been compromised by failings in our election system. Click here to learn more about the My Vote, My Right campaign.
1 Comment
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It’s great to our Federal employees defending America’s right to vote.
From the older restrictions on voting according class, race and gender to the more recent Republican attempts to suppress the vote in places like Florida and Ohio, some Americans have nothing but contempt for our democratic ideals.
The labor movement needs to step up to plate to defend our voting rights and AFGE is showing us the way.
Bob Simpson
The BobboSphere