2008 Woodie Awards
Famous Facebookers call for student vote
Beth Wrasse & Jayne Miller
Issue date: 9/5/08 Section: News
Kal Penn, best known for his role as Kumar in the film Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle, teamed up with co-creator of Facebook Chris Hughes to encourage the college community to rock the vote on Wednesday.
Hughes, a Harvard alumnus, and Penn, a University of Pennsylvania lecturer when not acting, engaged the media via a conference call. Although the two were simultaneously campaigning for Obama, their message was bipartisan in spirit - college campuses need to be involved in the 2008 election.
According to Penn, less than 20 percent of Pennsylvania college students voted in 2004. Since then, youth participation has increased, with Florida increasing participation 300 percent since 2000. With 629,000 college students in Pa., Penn and Hughes said their goal was to get all of them to the polls - an ambitious project.
"[We're] making an effort to let them know that it is their legal right to vote where they live and they should all get involved," Penn said.
The two were also promoting Voteforchange.com. The website, bearing Barrack Obama's campaign slogan, is meant to give students the tools they need to register. "People think it is a complex process, but actually it can be pretty simple," Hughes said. "Come to the website, get information about them, provide them with online form, print it out on PDF, mail it in and you're done. Registering to vote should be as simple and personalized as can be."
Hughes, a Harvard alumnus, and Penn, a University of Pennsylvania lecturer when not acting, engaged the media via a conference call. Although the two were simultaneously campaigning for Obama, their message was bipartisan in spirit - college campuses need to be involved in the 2008 election.
According to Penn, less than 20 percent of Pennsylvania college students voted in 2004. Since then, youth participation has increased, with Florida increasing participation 300 percent since 2000. With 629,000 college students in Pa., Penn and Hughes said their goal was to get all of them to the polls - an ambitious project.
"[We're] making an effort to let them know that it is their legal right to vote where they live and they should all get involved," Penn said.
The two were also promoting Voteforchange.com. The website, bearing Barrack Obama's campaign slogan, is meant to give students the tools they need to register. "People think it is a complex process, but actually it can be pretty simple," Hughes said. "Come to the website, get information about them, provide them with online form, print it out on PDF, mail it in and you're done. Registering to vote should be as simple and personalized as can be."
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