Trick or Vote is the nation’s largest (and possibly only) costumed get-out-the-vote effort, led by local volunteers in cities across the country. This year more than 250 organizations in 41 states will be hosting Trick or Vote events. According to a study conducted by Yale University, knocking on doors can increase voter turnout by 8-12%, more than any other activity. Any grade-schooler can tell you that there is one night a year Americans expect a knock on their door: Halloween (which happens to fall just a few days before Election Day).

“It’s the best way on the best day” said Kayje Booker, “And it’s giving thousands of young people their first taste of delicious democracy.” One third of Trick or Vote participants surveyed in 2008 responded that it was their first volunteer experience. By tapping into the masked magic and mayhem of Halloween, Trick or Vote gives young people an easy entry into civic engagement. In 2010, FMF had 103 volunteers and knocked on over 5,400 doors.

This year, Missoula and Bozeman Trick or Vote events will draw over 200 young volunteers for an action-packed get-out-the-vote effort that will be sweet as candy. The national effort is coordinated by the Bus Federation Civic Fund and features partners from across the country. For a glimpse into Trick or Vote’s signature mix of humor and democracy, check out the latest batch of volunteer-created monster videos now available at trickorvote.org.

Volunteers will meet up at the Stensrud Event Center in Missoula or Room 233 of the Student Union Building in Bozeman on October 31 at 5:30pm and walk the city to remind people to vote.  After the canvass, volunteers will be treated to an epic Halloween party, featuring contests, prizes, live music, and more. Costumes required!

Dr. Kayje Booker, Registradiologist
Forward Montana Foundation

Hello, friends. I speak to you today a leader of bunnies; we are pink, and we are legion.

Here in Montana, the Pink Bunnies of Forward Montana Foundation register young people to vote, 10,000 and counting so far this year. We’ve hopped all around Big Sky Country (all 147,046 square miles) spreading democracy, and our gigantic ears have wiggled for joy at what we have heard from the young folks: they are engaged and passionate and ready to exercise their right to vote.

So while I’ve heard the rumors that young people are going to sit this election out, that they are disaffected and unenthusiastic, after personally registering a couple thousand of them to vote in the last six months, I feel confident in saying that those rumors are false. When we pull out our voter registration signs and clipboards on campuses around the state, we’re mobbed by students who want to make sure that they’ve done everything they need to in order to vote this fall. We’ve talked to young people in their high school and college classes, in their dining halls, at concerts and football games – they know how important this election is, and they are excited to have their voice heard.

In fact, they’re so passionate about making sure young people show up in this election that they are out there right now registering each other to vote! Hundreds of them across Montana have been pounding the pavement in Pink Bunny attire to make sure their friends, frenemies, roommates, distant cousins, and casual acquaintances are all current on their voter registration. Hundreds more will be out in October to ensure that those same people vote this fall. Here at Forward Montana Foundation, our high school and college-age interns have put in thousands of hours, braving blizzards, extreme heat, and everything in between to register other young people to vote. Their commitment is inspiring and offers a tiny glimpse of the potential that passionate young people have to reinvigorate our democracy.

These efforts are all part of a movement towards peer-to-peer, costume-based efforts at civic engagement. The response has been phenomenal; given the opportunity to take democracy and run with it, young people are doing fantastically innovative, unexpected, and thoughtful work to promote civic engagement to their peers. Facebook memes, online “social ballots,” jump-roping robots, and ninja pirate bunnies are just some of the ways that young folks are reaching out to each other to encourage them to get involved in their democracy.

These non-traditional voter registration efforts are culminating in National Voter Registration Day, a massive effort across the country to involve businesses, community-based organizations, and other groups who usually don’t participate in this kind of thing. We are hoping to show people throughout the country that being a registered voter is an expectation that every single one of us should have for ourselves and for each other. We should be able to say, as we do at our organization, “Every bunny is doing it.”

In fact, I’m proud to say that while some states are making it harder for people to vote this fall, here in Montana we have dozens of organizations hard at work to ensure that every eligible citizen is able to cast a ballot. In our work alone, our organization, Forward Montana Foundation, has increased the size of the electorate by 1.5%, and we are just one of many organizations similarly committed to the task of engaging our citizens in the democratic process. We’ve had key support in these efforts from both sides of the aisle, with everyone from a small town Democratic Mayor to a former Republican State Senator out there in Pink Bunny costumes to register voters.

It’s certainly an exciting time to be a Pink Bunny in Montana, and we’re eager to see the results of this work come November 6^th. Whatever the results, we’ll know that many more people will have spoken and that the voices of young people will have been an important part of the conversation.

WE DID IT!!!

Omg…we actually did it.  In 2008 we collected over 4,500 voter registration and we felt on the top of the world!  Today we get to announce that we have more than doubled that number and it’s all because of the hundreds of Pink Bunnies that grabbed a clipboard and got to work.

We could not have done this without the help of committed volunteers who cared so much about ensuring that young people were registered and ready to vote.  This is the largest third party voter registration drive in the history of the state of Montana.

Honestly folks…we are just blown away.  This is incredibly exciting and we are so glad we get to share this moment with you! ]]> http://forwardmontanafoundation.org/2012/09/17/fmf-hits-10000-voter-registration/feed/ 0 http://forwardmontanafoundation.org/2011/09/28/griz-nation-votes-event-pushes-forward-montana-foundation-past-2011-goal/ http://forwardmontanafoundation.org/2011/09/28/griz-nation-votes-event-pushes-forward-montana-foundation-past-2011-goal/#comments Wed, 28 Sep 2011 18:53:43 +0000 richelle http://scottduncombe.com/fmt/?p=200 Continue reading →]]>

Forward Montana Foundation blew past their 2011 voter registration goal of 2,090 voter registrations during the Griz Nation Votes event on Sept 17, 2011.  Forward Montana Foundation teamed up with the Associated Students of the University of Montana (ASUM) to put together this first of a kind event.  Volunteers registered 128 voters on the day of the Griz game.

Forward Montana is pretty jazzed to announce that our trek to the University of Montana (Missoula) and Montana State University (Bozeman) ended with big numbers of new students registered to vote.  Following a week and a half of registering people to vote we ended up with 1,167 new registered voters in Montana.  This is a new record for Forward Montana!

We registered 452 Bobcats and 715 Grizzlies on our tour!  We want to give a big thank you to the many volunteers who helped us in both cities.  This new bench mark is a big freakin’ deal and we couldn’t have done it without you!