Why Vote? Free Stuff
Five Freebies Just for Voting in November
1. Two of the best bands in indie rock cover a folk godfather, and the only way to get it is by promising to vote. Wilco and the Fleet Foxes covered Bob Dylan's "I Shall Be Released" last month in Oregon, and Wilco has a crisp recording of it. You can't buy it, though. You have to pledge to vote to download it - at the Wilco Web site.
That's right, you only have to promise to vote. You don't actually have to vote. Jeff Tweedy can't actually track down your voter records, but you wouldn't lie to a band that gave you such a great gift.
2. The new Wilco track isn't the first musical gimme for voters. Sheryl Crow was already there with her "Rock the Vote" sponsored giveaway.
Anyone who registers to vote can get her free song "Gasoline" at Rock The Vote. Register three of your friends and get her whole new album.
While you're at the Rock The Vote site, listen to streams (even though you can't download them) from a raft of other politically-minded bands.
3. Project Vote Smart has a handbook for voters this year. It covers all the important issues and candidates, so you can be a smart, informed voter. Get the voters' manual at
the All Things Reform site
This one doesn't even require you to pledge to vote, but I don't suppose you'd pore over the issues and candidates if you couldn't be bothered to vote.
4. Get a bumper sticker from the American Civil Liberties Union. The
Web site demands that you not only pledge to vote, but you have to pledge to be a "Constitution Voter."
The sticker says "I'm a Constitution voter," so the pledge only makes sense.
5. And the stickers aren't only for your bumper. One of the reasons I have not switched to popular mail-in ballots is that mail-in voters don't get the cool little "I Voted" sticker. Most states stock little voter stickers for folks who come in and cast ballots.
You don't need to pledge anything for this sticker. You don't have to click on any links. You just have to vote.
There you are: five tangible reasons to vote. And I didn't even get to the intangibles, such as the sense of self-satisfaction and the ability to gloat "Don't blame me, I voted for the other guy" if your candidate loses but his opponent screws up.
Published by Steve Graham
Steve Graham is a Colorado journalist who jumped into the freelance world after nearly 10 years as a reporter and editor for community newspapers. He has written extensively about entertainment, politics and... View profile
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3 Comments
Post a CommentWhat is the point in bothering to vote for candidates in the U.S. anyway? Issues on the ballot I can understand taking the time to vote for or against for example if you live in California there's a reason to vote for Proposition 19 if for nothing else to further expose the Obama administration as reactionary by its response to its passage. But for actual candidates? Total waste of time.
After the Dems swept into power in Congress in the 2006 midterms on a platform of "Vote for us if you want to end the war in Iraq" and then refused to actually do anything to, you know, end the war in Iraq like cutting off funding for it by refusing to vote on supplementals that should have told anybody with common sense that they've been bamboozled. After Obama gets elected as a supposed "change agent" and despite a Dem majority Senate and House gives the American people a health care "reform" bill written by the big insurance companies and Big Pharma; after giving us a Wall Street "reform" bill wri
Interesting. Never knew you could get free stuff for voting.
It seems sad to me that the best excuse someone would have to vote would be kitchy-crap.