Wednesday, October 4, 2006 10:28 PM CDT
Can MySpace make voting popular?
By KATE HENDERSON, Staff Writer
khenderson@jg-tc.com
MySpace.com, the Web site popular for making bands, comedians, models and actresses popular, is now taking on a new mission: making voting popular.
The social networking site similar to Facebook.com recently launched a campaign to direct its members to myspace.com/declareyourself, a new spot where the millions of myspace.com members can register to vote and spread the word.
“Putting the simplest voter registration tool on a platform that already reaches 54 million unique monthly visitors is a huge step in promoting civic engagement,” Jeff Berman, MySpace’s senior vice president for public affairs told Newsweek. “This is where people are spending their time. The potential is enormous.”
Cruising through the MySpace and Facebook sites, one can find personalized pages for many politicians, who are racking up “friends” showing support by the minute. Facebook also features a skeleton page of every state race and tracks the candidates’ support among Facebook users, who are mainly ages 18 to 24. In Illinois for example, current governor, Rod Blagojevich, leads in support with 49.98 percent, followed by Judy Barr Topinka at 37 percent and Rich Whitney with 14.03 percent.
Catherine Thoma, an Eastern Illinois University junior, said she doesn’t vote, but providing the opportunity to register online is a step in the right direction.
“Maybe advertising voting on MySpace is a good thing because nowadays MySpace and Facebook consumes our lives and if we put important issues on there, people my age will see it and maybe do it,” she said.
Betty Coffrin, Coles County clerk, said she’s on board with the online voter registration.
“I hope it helps with young voters,” she said. “I appreciate that and I like the whole concept.”
Coffrin mentioned a new bill passed in the last year or so that requires universities to provide voter registration forms to all students either online or in paper form. She said it hasn’t had a large showing, however.
“I’ve not noticed a lot of increase in registration as a result of that, but I’m always optimistic,” Coffrin said.
Coffrin said it’s good the service is available, but when it comes time to vote, it’s a two-step process.
“I hope that if they do take the form and fill it out and register that they will follow through and vote on Election Day,” she said.
National trends show low voter turnout for the 18-22 age range: usually only 22 percent of those registered to vote at that age actually do. Coffrin said Coles County isn’t much different, despite registration availability.
“Unfortunately, I don’t think we buck the trend here in Coles County,” she said.
Coffrin also has a reminder for those registering online and mailing in forms. She said Illinois does require supporting identification with registration or voters must take it to the polls with them.
Ceci Brinker, Eastern’s director of student life, said technology is a good way to reach students, but the old-fashioned face-to-face way of getting students to vote works too.
“Our student government does a voter registration drive called Rock the Vote on campus,” Brinker said. “They (student government) typically like to get out and talk to students about voting issues.”
Brinker said Eastern’s Rock the Vote starts Monday, and the goal is to get as many students registered as possible.
“They’ll be giving out Riesen candy bars to hopefully give students a reason to vote,” Brinker said.
As far as voter registration on MySpace, Brinker said she’s not sure how successful it can be.
“How effective those tools are, I’m not aware of,” she said. “I find when our students do it the old-fashioned way, they tend to get a lot of support and interest from students face to face.”
Brinker said the online campaign is probably a good way to reach tech-savvy students and shed some light on something that should be a top priority.
“Anything to use the technology and help students be good citizens and good voters is a useful tool,” Brinker said.
Contact Kate Henderson at khenderson@jg-tc.com or 238-6858.
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 Kevin Kilhoffer (JG/T-C)
Myspace.com now offers its members the chance to register to vote and view profiles of politicians, including U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill.
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