2008 Accomplishments
19 years after a group of artists came together with a vision of harnessing the power of music for social change, Rock the Vote is a household name at the forefront of progressive youth activism, engaging millions of young people nationwide and building the power of young adults to lead our country toward a better future. After a year of record accomplishments, we look forward to another amazing 19 years rocking the vote.
Record Young
Voter Turnout
More 18-29 year olds voted in 2008 than ever before in U.S. history.
Over 22 million 18-29 year olds voted, 2 million more than in 2004 and 6.5 million more than in 2000.
Youth turnout grew to 51%, the highest since 1972.
Young people made a major impact on the election, voting for Barack Obama by 34 points.
The power of young voters made headlines from the Iowa caucuses to Election Day in November, as a force that propelled Barack Obama to the presidency.
A Historic Campaign
Rock the Vote ran the largest youth voter registration drive in history in 2008
2.6 million people completed voter registrations via our online tool, grassroots efforts, and direct mail program.
23,000 voter registration partners joined with us to register young Americans.
251,000 voters signed up for our mobile activist list.
5.7 million people visited our website and 1.6 million joined our email list.
Road Trip ‘08
Rock the Vote volunteers, artists, staff, and partners criss-crossed the country, promoting voter registration, education, early voting, and action, state-by-state and stop-by-stop.
16 states. 15,000 miles. 23 artists. 100 stops. 150,000 pledges to vote.
Solange, Eve, Murs, Taleb Kweli, Sheryl Crow, the Beastie Boys, Jack Johnson, Norah Jones, Tenacious D, Santogold, Ben Stiller, Ben Harper, Bow Wow, and more.
RTV Street Teams
in Action
From California to Virginia, RTVers led a movement from the ground up to mobilize young voters.
Young people in all 50 states joined RTV’s volunteer network, working with our field organizers to register and mobilize young voters.
6,200 volunteers took action throughout the year, at registration drives, debates, Road Trip stops, and concerts.
Street Team leaders and organizers held 375 registration and GOTV events in target states.
Volunteers organized another 700 events and registration drives around the country.
Activism, Advocacy, Education
From voting rights to human rights, RTV took action for social change throughout 2008.Over 21,000 RTVers took action to protect veterans’ voting rights, push for action on global poverty, and end the genocide in Darfur.
Volunteers with our sister organization, RTV Action Fund, handed out 175,000 voter guides comparing 10 U.S. Senate candidates on a range of issues, from the economy and health care to civil rights and energy.
Hundreds of young voters attended congressional candidate forums in N.C. and FL to discuss energy, Iraq, housing, the economy, gay rights and more.
Get Out the Vote!
700,000 people visited RTV’s Election Center, an online hub for 50-state voter information, to find out where, when and how to register and vote.
In the two weeks before Election Day, RTV volunteers organized 21 early vote events and 36 pledge-to-vote events.
Volunteers made over 10,000 calls via our Facebook phone-banking application reminding young people to register and vote on Election Day.
On Election Day RTV staff and volunteers watch-dogged 38 youth-dense precincts and helped stop voting rights violations in Virginia, Florida, Ohio, and elsewhere.
Dozens of artists created Rock the Vote Get Out the Vote PSAs: Christina Aguilera, Adrian Grenier, Anne Hathaway, Ashanti, Samuel L. Jackson, Rosie Perez, Robert DeNiro, Fall Out Boy, Wyclef, Jamie Foxx, and Against Me! and more. Spanish language PSAs featured John Leguizamo, Juanes and Paulina Rubio.
RTV sent 289,700 text message Get Out the Vote reminders in the 2008 primaries and general election, including an Election Day text with polling place locations in conjunction with Google.
Rock the Vote’s mission is to engage and build the political power of young people in order to achieve progressive change in our country.
