By Ted Montuori

Using a combination of new Internet technology and old-fashioned pavement pounding, nonprofits and political activists plan to educate the young voting masses during this year's Democratic and Republican national conventions.

The conventions' committees each have sponsored an essay contest with cable network MTV and its Choose or Lose 2004 campaign. Two winners, each representing the major political parties, will speak on prime-time television at the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Boston and Republican National Convention (RNC) in New York City, according to MTV.

It is the first time both parties teamed to offer young people a voice at their conventions, according to MTV, also based in New York City.

Jaime Uzeta, MTV's senior director of strategic partnerships and public affairs, said people aged 18 to 30 contributed 18 million votes in the 2000 election, and that MTV is aiming to increase that number this November with its 20 Million LOUD! campaign.

Applicants for the RNC Committee contest, Stand Up and Holla!, must be between 18 and 24 years old and, in fewer than 300 words, answer, "Why is the president's call for community service important and how have you demonstrated it?" The 10 finalists will be chosen by a selection committee and will be narrowed to one from votes through the RNC's voter registration vehicle and the Web sites of the RNC and MTV.

Applicants for the DNC Committee contest, Speak Out for the Future, must also be 18 to 24 and submit essays to the DNC's Web site and answer, "Why should politics be important to youth and how can youth get more involved in the political process?" Winners will be selected in the same format as those in the RNC essay contest, and voting will be available on the Web sites of the DNC and MTV.

MTV said it is partnering with more than 100 youth-oriented nonprofits, including: Hip-Hop Summit Action Network in New York City; the New Voters Project in Denver; Project Vote Smart in Philipsburg, Mont.; and Washington, D.C.-based groups such as the Youth Vote Coalition; National Council of La Raza; Black Youth Vote; and Youth Service America.

As of early June, The Youth Vote Coalition was still preparing what it will do during the conventions, and was facilitating communications among its more than 100 group members, said Veronica De La Garza, the coalition's executive director.

One Youth Vote Coalition member, The Washington Center for Internships and Academic Seminars, will hold seminars during the conventions for more than 400 high school students about politics and how the election is run, according to Robert Walter, the center's program director of mass communications and academic seminars. The students will also intern for political action committees or the conventions' organizers, Walter added.

Another Youth Vote Coalition member, The New Voters Project, is training consultants and other organizers from the John Kerry and George W. Bush campaigns on the benefits of reaching out to young people.

Ivan Frishberg, outreach and communications coordinator for The New Voters Project, said his group will also plan other convention activities.

Rock the Vote, a Youth Vote Coalition member based in Los Angeles, plans three outdoor concerts in New York City and Massachusetts for both conventions, according to Rock the Vote spokesman Jay Strell.

Another activist who said he is influenced by radical 1960s politics plans to use the Internet by taking it to the streets -- literally.

Bikes Against Bush, the self-funded creation of Joshua Kinberg, will let Internet users email messages to the 25-year-old New York City resident as he rides a bicycle containing a laptop computer, cell phone, GPS device and a Webcam. Using a robotic printing device that incorporates spray-chalk aerosol cans, Kinberg will print the messages on the streets of Manhattan during the RNC, and use the Webcam to broadcast them online.

"I've been trying to create an event for the Net," Kinberg said. "It's another broadcast medium. There are different rules of engagement."

The Web is an important part of the Washington, D.C.-based American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), according to its president, Mary Rose Oakar, a former Ohio Congresswoman who said the site gets 2 million hits monthly.

Like other nonprofit groups, the ADC will have delegates at the conventions who will correspond with their organization, which will update the ADC's Web site with the delegates' information, according to Oakar.

Saskia Mills, executive director of the Davis-based California Voter Foundation (CVF), also highlighted the importance of the Net. Mills said that for state races across the United States in 1994, CVF only tallied six Web sites that existed for political candidates. As of March 2004, according to Mills, CVF counted more than 200 sites for politicians running for state offices in California alone.

CVF is one of many nonprofits that doesn't have specific plans for the conventions, but will increase advocacy and education programs for voters through the conventions and November election. Groups include the YWCA of Minneapolis; The Gamaliel Foundation, based in Chicago; and Disabled American Veterans, based in Cold Spring, Ky.

Larry Pellegrini, executive director for Decatur-based Georgia Rural Urban Summit (GRUS), said the group has discussed voters' rights at various meetings around the state in churches, civil rights walks and "anywhere we can get a gig."

While GRUS doesn't have particular plans for the DNC and RNC, Pellegrini said he hopes the conventions will bring more publicity to the group and encourage voter participation.

The Every Child Matters Education Fund (ECMEF) in Washington, D.C., will be too busy with its voter registration efforts and pledges to attend the conventions, but will instead continue its advocacy in various states, according to Angela Blake Madnick, the fund's director of public affairs.

Through partnerships with groups such as the Alexandria, Va.-based National Head Start Association, Madnick said she expects the ECMEF to reach 200,000 people and inform them of children's issues.

By the end of this year, Wellstone Action Network plans to have 5,000 people trained in various voting procedures and advocacy techniques, said Jeff Blodgett, executive director of the St. Paul, Minn.-based group.

Named after Paul Wellstone, a U.S. Senator from Minnesota who died in a plane crash in 2002, the group has several locations for its "Camp Wellstone" program in various states. Mark and David Wellstone, sons of Paul Wellstone, are the co-chairmen of Wellstone Action Network.

The camps are really two-and-a-half-day training sessions, according to Blodgett, and have offered courses in voter registration, education and mobilization since the program began in June, 2003. At the end of 2004, Blodgett said there will be an estimated 35 camps in 15 states. Wellstone Action Network plans to set up camps in Boston and New York City shortly before the DNC and RNC, according to Blodgett.

The Democracy Project, a gay advocacy campaign of the Denver-based Gill Foundation, is providing tools to its 252 affiliates to encourage members to vote, said Democracy Project Manager Sam Cole.

Those tools include templates of letters to send to politicians, posters and T-shirts that promote political advocacy, according to Cole. Another item is a U.S. flag with 14 stars, which Cole said indicates states where laws prohibit employees from being fired because of their sexual orientation.

Through researching public records, Cole said, The Democracy Project, also based in Denver, finds which members are not registered to vote, and gives that information to its affiliates in 15 states so the affiliates can encourage those members to vote.

Mark Ritchie, national coordinator for National Voice, a Minnesota-based coalition of nonprofits in which groups advocate for the democratic process, said groups' high activity in get-out-the-vote and voter registration activities is remarkable.

"This is the most I've ever known," Ritchie said. "There is a high level of concern and growing awareness of what a nonprofit can do," he said. "This change won't be temporary."

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