Trick or
Vote is a nationwide nonpartisan costumed canvass taking place on
Halloween. Our goal is to get our supporters to dress up and talk to
their neighbors about the importance of voting and then throw a rocking
PARTY afterward. This year’s version will be around Initiative 300,
which states if you are pulled over without your license with you, the
police must impound your vehicle, costing you $2700 to get it back.
Yikes!! This needs to be defeated, so while you might be too old to
trick or treat, you're never too old to Trick or Vote!
WHAT: Trick or Vote Denver 2009 and
Media Monster Bash, hosted by Denver Open Media and featuring a live
televised dance party, costume contest with great prizes, a televised
green-screen monster movie room, spooky games, 3 DJs, a Haunted Meat
Locker and much more!
WHEN: Halloween, Saturday Oct 31st, 2009 3:30 - Arrive for Canvass and Training (Meet city council members and get some grub) 5:00 - Hit the streets to talk to voter 8:00 - MONSTER BASH!!!
$15 advance tickets, $20 at the door, includes food and drink Canvass volunteers receive free tickets to Media Monster Bash!
RSVP for Media Monster Bash $15 advance tickets, $20 at the door, includes food and drink Canvass volunteers receive free tickets to Media Monster Bash!
Sarah Horn, a graduate student at the University of Colorado came by our recent Meet the Candidates debate at the Fox Theatre. Here's her take on it:
Sarah Horn
Meet the Candidates
October 22, 2009
The audience members at the Fox Theater texted their way to electing candidate Valerie Mitchell for mayor of Boulder.
In an innovative style forum, New Era Colorado and Elephant Journal invited the 13 candidates running for the five open Boulder City Council seats to the Fox on Oct. 12. The event, Meet the Candidates: Boulder City Council, was set up with American Idol in mind.
Audience members could vote off stage the least agreeable competitors. Candidates were questioned in four rounds, one question for all of the candidates, then questions from the judges and a third portion that ranged from a trivia question to performing a joke.
“A dyslexic man walked into a bra,” said Fenno Hoffman in the shortest one-liner, eliciting a lot of laughter from the crowd.
After each round, the audience shows support for a candidate by texting their name to a number that is then logged and shown as a percentage on a white screen hung on stage. Everyone can watch the bars beside the names grow and shrink as more and more people vote. People shouted out the names of candidates they wanted to stay on stage to encourage more votes. There were five hopeful council members sitting on the stage at the end, representing the five open seats.
Yep, if you didn't know it, there is an election in 2009. And these local elections can arguably have a more direct impact on your daily life than the big ones. This election will be an all mail ballot, meaning your ballot will be mailed to the address you are registered at. If you need to check to see where you are registered, go to the Secretary of State's website to search your name. If you registered recently with New Era your record might not be updated yet, so don't worry. Below is what you need to know about what's on your ballot.
Boulder
5 of the 9 City Council seats are up in Boulder. Quick math tells us that's a majority of the council, which means this election is pretty dang important for city policies and such. New Era is holding our signature candidate debate, Meet the Candidates, at the Fox Theater on Oct. 12th to give you a chance to get to know these candidates as real people rather than just funny names on your ballot. The audience will even have a chance to vote people off stage American Idol style via text message or twitter! stick around and listen to the Dovekins play a killer show. Click here for more deets.
New Era will be hosting a BYOB (Bring Your Own Ballot) party on Thursday, Oct. 22nd for those of you who want to discuss the candidates and issues a bit more with people before you turn that ballot in. These parties turn out to be a pretty good time, so stay tuned. Location to be announced shortly.
Denver
There aren't any city council elections happening this time in Denver, but there is an important ballot measure that voters will be voting on. The measure, being referred to as the Impound Initiative, would require police to impound your car (which costs $2700 to get your car back) if you are ever pulled over and caught driving without your license on you. Ever drive to the grocery store at night and forget your license at home? Yea, us too. This one isn't a good idea in our opinion. It forces police to be sitting around waiting for a tow truck instead of actually doing their job and keeping us safe. We're voting a big fatty NO on this one.
The front page of the Denver Post was an important one today. The article describes numbers for Colorado that were just released for the first time by the US Census Bureau. We knew it was bad, but this puts it in black and white.
Not only did 1 in 6 Coloradans not have health insurance last year (which is well above the national average), but the article shows that there are huge disparities across our state. For instance, 1 in 4 people do not have insurance in Aurora, yet that number shrinks to 1 in 20 for Highlands Ranch. A lot of this disparity can be attributed to Aurora's high population of young people--the most uninsured age demographic in the country.
Check it. New Era joined forces with Rock the Vote to release this report highlighting the views of young people on health care reform. The numbers are quite staggering. Young people are not only watching the health care debate closely, but they are the absolute most supportive age group of reform. Read the report below and feel free to download it and spread it like the piggy flu.
RTV-Health Colorado Report FINAL (September 2009)-1
Check out the Huffington Post article on Generation H and the Fake Doctor campaign to engage young people in the health care debate. It also has some great stuff about a new poll that was just released that cites the following:
Young people 18-024 expressed the strongest desire for reform and the strongest support for a public option. According to the SurveyUSA poll, 60% of those 18-34 support Obama's plan -- including 66% of 18 to 24-year-olds and 74% of 25 to 29-year-olds -- compared to 51% overall.
Check out the