October 31, 2007
Youth activists from the National Youth Rights Association learned early Tuesday evening that Dennis Kucinich would be  answering emailed questions on http://kucinichr.com/ after the debate. Wanting to make sure Kucinich spoke on the voting age issues, youth rights activists jumped into their email and asked the question: "Will you introduce legislation this year to lower the voting age?"   Some activists got on the discussion board and asked the voting age question as they waited for Kucinich.   Certain that theirs was the most asked question of the night, they waited for an answer.

Pushing issues in group actions of this nature was first initiated by conservative Republicans and later by activist Democrats. Both groups have found it to be effective.  However, many legislators have stopped reading emails or have Internet forms in lieu of emails.  Nancy Pelosi won't accept emails from non-constituents, although she claims to speak for the Democratic Party.

Kucinich came onto http://kucinichr.com/ and answered questions from people in the room.  The youth rights activists were concerned that the emails would be ignored.  Then Kucinich asked if there was another question and one staff person said: voting age.  Dennis Kucinich spoke at length about the need to lower the voting age.  Youth rights activists were especially impressed that Kucinich was familiar with their talking points.  He went on at length about the capabilities of young Americans under 18 and spoke about the reason that 16 year olds are more likely to vote than 18 year olds.  Youth activists have been impressed by Kucinich's positions on the issues for a long time.  Tuesday night, it was clear that Kucinich was listening to the youth activists.

So far, no transcript or video of Kucinich's answer has been made available to the public.  Youth rights activists would appreciate a transcript or video.

The staffer did not ask the question exactly as it was asked.  The youth activists want to know one more thing, Congressman Kucinich: WILL YOU INTRODUCE LEGISLATION THIS YEAR TO LOWER THE VOTING AGE?

For campaign staffers upset about the number of youth emails, we have one word: CHILL. For everyone else in Congress or state government, we have two words: YOU'RE NEXT.

Copyright ©2007 by the Creative Youth News Team.

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