Here’s an interesting approach to increasing voter turnout (for both parties) on Tuesday:
NEW YORK, Nov. 3 /PRNewswire/ — New York City Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein joined BrainPOP Chief Operating Officer Michael Salort and I.S. 93 Principal George Foley at I.S. 93 Ridgewood Intermediate School in Queens today to announce “Take Your Parents to Vote Day,” a new online movie-short produced by BrainPOP, a producer of animated films for elementary and middle school students.
Chancellor Klein and Russell Simmons, the president and founder of Phat Farm Clothing, are the stars of the cartoon, which urges students in New York City and around the country to vote on Tuesday, November 7. The six-minute movie is available free online at www.brainpop.com. A Spanish version is available at http://es.brainpop.com.
“Participation, not observation, is what makes our democracy tick,” Chancellor Klein said. “I urge all New Yorkers, particularly young voters, to take a stand this Tuesday and exercise one of their most critical rights and responsibilities.”
“The suggestion to create a movie about voting actually came from one of our users, a child who was curious about the current news coverage revolving around the mid-term elections,” said Mr. Salort. “So we were thrilled to work with Chancellor Klein and Russell Simmons to create a movie that would not only help boost voter turnout this year but would educate future voters about the importance of the election process.”
And it is quite good. Watch it yourself:
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.