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Given entertainment's central place in American society, it's only natural that MTV has been enlisted to help pull voters to the polls on Election Day.
MTV's nonpartisan political partner, Rock the Vote, is promoting a new initiative, Rock the Mobile Vote, that aims to tap the mobile phones of young people to entice them to vote this November.
"The one constant of a young person is the constancy of a cell phone in their pocket, or in their hand next to their ear," said Michael Evans, chief operating officer of Rock the Vote. "What Rock the Vote does is provide an amplifier for young people's voices. When you get 10,000 or 100,000 or 20 million of them that are sharing their views, then that's something that really can effect change."
Rock the Mobile Vote, in partnership with phone maker Motorola, plans to offer information on candidates' stances on issues. Users also could request voter-registration forms. And the service will offer a candidate matchmaker quick quiz, which asks users for their opinions on major issues and tells them the candidate most in tune with them. Users also would be able to query their phone to find their polling place on Election Day. And, bringing MTV's influence to bear, Rock the Mobile Vote will be calling participants with get-out-the-vote pleas recorded by rock stars.
Rock the Mobile Vote says personal information about users of the opt-in service would not be sold or given to marketers without the individuals' consent.
Currently, Rock the Mobile Vote is in a testing phase and is only offering SMS poll questions sent out every other week. But the suite of other services will become available starting in a month.
"As the election approaches, what is the most important issue?" asked this week's poll question. Among the seven possible responses were "protecting civil liberties," "cost of education," "gay and lesbian marriage," "more jobs" and "national security."
Once a user has selected a choice, the system asks some demographic questions, particularly age. Within a few days, results of the polls are made available online.
Rock the Mobile Vote is aimed at people 18 to 30 years old. The organization hopes to entice enough people to turn out to vote this November to match the 20 million who voted in 1992, and perhaps make a difference in the outcome of this year's presidential election.
"Just over 18 million young people voted in 2000, and five states were decided by less than 8,000 votes," said Evans. "So if you look at the number of people who are 18 to 30, and if you look at the levels of young people who voted in 1992, (we hope) it would be a return to those levels."
To observers of social-networking phenomena, the Rock the Mobile Vote program is a no-brainer.
"The mobile telephone is really the medium of choice of the younger generation," said Howard Rheingold, author of Smart Mobs. "They're SMSing, they're walking around, they're using their telephones, and not just for voice."
Emily Turrettini, editor of textually.org, a blog about text-messaging technologies and trends, agrees.
"Texting can be used as a media tool," she said. "And it appeals to young people. It's always on, always with them, reaching them with up-to-the minute news or information, or soliciting an immediate reaction or response."
What's more, mobile phones are perfect for making young people feel involved.
"When texting is a technology young people are comfortable with, it's a unique way of reaching them in a very direct and personal way, literally in their pocket," she said.
Turrettini points out that many other countries have used mobile phones to get voters involved. On her site she has written about registration efforts in South Africa, where nearly 200,000 people used their mobile phones to register to vote during the last registration weekend in a recent election.
Similarly, she wrote about the last prime-ministerial election in France, where candidates participated in SMS chat sessions organized by the youth mobile community Freever. Extreme right-wing candidate Jean-Marie Le Pen alone received more than 250,000 questions during the sessions, said Turrettini.
Other countries using mobile-phone technology to get voters involved include Oman, Malaysia, China, New Zealand and the Philippines, she said.
Rheingold goes so far as to say that mobile phones were instrumental in the election of South Korea's President Roh Moo-hyun. Early election-day exit polls showed Roh's opponent was winning. But when hundreds of thousands of Roh's supporters got involved and began SMSing their friends urging them to get out and vote, Roh ended up winning, he said.
Anything that can bring young people in the United States back to the polls is good for America's participatory democracy, observers say. Rheingold lauds Rock the Vote for trying to use the tools that young voters already have in hand to get them involved in the political process.
"Young voters are crucial," he said. "The trend over recent years has been for them to drift away. So anything that gets young voters interested in the electoral process not only has an immediate effect, but has an effect for years and years."
