Rock The Vote - Timeline

Timeline

1992: Election polls that year showed a 20% increase in youth turnout over the prior Presidential election, ending 20 years of declining youth participation.

1993: President Bill Clinton signed the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, commonly referred to as the "motor voter" bill, which expanded access to voter registration. The legislation was strongly supported by Rock the Vote through celebrity advocacy and public education.

1996: Rock the Vote created the first telephone voter registration system, 1-800-REGISTER (later creating 1-800-ROCK-VOTE) to provide information regarding local elections offices and how to find the appropriate polling place or request an absentee ballot. In conjunction with MCI, they also created the first online voter registration system, called NetVote ’96. All in all, Rock the Vote registered over 500,000 new voters through radio partners, volunteers, concert tours, MTV’s Choose or Lose bus, 1-800-REGISTER, and NetVote ’96.

2000: Rock the Vote sponsored a 25-city summer bus tour featuring free entertainment and promoting local community activists at each stop.

2003: With CNN, Rock the Vote organized "America Rocks the Vote," a Democratic Presidential Candidates Forum at Faneuil Hall in Boston in November.

2004: More than 1.2 million young people used the Rock the Vote website to register to vote. More than 15,000 Rock the Vote volunteers and local partners registered an additional 200,000 voters. Partnering with VoterCall, Rock the Vote made hundreds of thousands of get out the vote (GOTV) contacts to young people who registered through the Rock the Vote website. Rock the Vote also launched, with Motorola, one of the first large-scale mobile phone political engagement projects; more than 118,000 people signed up to get information on their mobile devices.

The group focused on health care issues, encouraging politicians to close the gap in health care availability. During the 2004 presidential election the group drew criticism from Republican Party officials such as RNC chairman Ed Gillespie for sending a mock draft notice to over 600,000 e-mail addresses. The message included the words "Selective Service System" and read "You are hereby ordered for induction into the Armed Forces of the United States, and to report to a polling place near you" on November 2 (Election Day). The Rock the Vote logo and a facsimile of Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's signature appeared at the bottom of the message. In addition, Rock the Vote created public service announcements featuring the subject of the draft.

In a letter to Rock the Vote president Jehmu Greene, Ed Gillespie accused Rock the Vote of "promoting a false and misleading campaign designed to scare America's youth into believing that they may be drafted to serve in the military." Gillespie also claimed that the "urban myth regarding a draft" had been "thoroughly debunked" by President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and Rumsfeld, Gillespie wrote: "This is the sort of malicious political deception that is likely to increase voter cynicism and in fact decrease the youth vote, as well as raising serious legal issues regarding the political motivations of your efforts." Rock the Vote replied by pointing out that General Jack Keane, former Vice Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army, "says the continued success of the all-volunteer military is not guaranteed." Keane has told Congress that adding more than 50,000 troops to the Army would require thinking about a return to the draft", and saying her organization wanted an "educated dialogue".

According to the Los Angeles Times, Rock the Vote experienced financial problems in the aftermath of the 2004 election. It emerged from the election $700,000 in debt, and its president resigned in the summer of 2005 "amid disagreements about the organization's direction." Working with founder Jeff Ayeroff, political director Hans Riemer led the effort to rebuild for the 2007-2008 presidential cycle before leaving the organization to become the youth director for Senator Barack Obama's Presidential Campaign.