"Play For Real" voter-registration drive kicks off
Entertainment Software Association and Video Game Voters Network try to mobilize the gaming masses.
The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) is fighting game-regulation legislation across the country, and it wants help from gamers. Today the ESA announced that its "grassroots" project, the Video Game Voters Network (VGVN), has launched the first voter-registration drive targeted specifically at gamers of voting age.
"If you don't register to vote, you leave yourself powerless to hold politicians accountable for their actions, and you send a message that anything they do is ok with you," the VGVN says in the "Why Vote?" section of its site. "Voting is the most important and effective way to make your voice heard."
ESA president Douglas Lowenstein said in a statement that the drive is intended to give adults who grew up with games a voice on all issues, including the ones gamers care about most. However, once registered, he stressed that gamers still need to get out and vote if they want their voices to matter.
"Tens of thousands of voting-aged gamers have joined the Video Game Voters grassroots political network since it was created last March," Lowenstein said. "Unfortunately, when it comes to voting, polls show that less than half of 18-to-29-year-olds turned out at the polls in the 2004 election, compared to 68 percent of those over 35 years old who cast their ballot."
The 2006 US midterm elections will be held on November 7.
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