You voted. Now what? Kristina Rizga of WireTap writes:

Many progressives hope that the elation and idealism that Barack Obama's campaign helped inspire will turn into a lifetime of community service. [...] And while the president and Congress deliberate policy and allocate funding, the direction of their work will depend, in part, on the continued grassroots activism of young people.

[asset|aid=936|format=image|formatter=asset|title=wtf_uncle_sam.jpg|width=303|height=380|align=right|resizable=true]"When did you say you mailed in your voter registration form?"

"About two months ago," I said, ear pressed to the phone.

"That's not what I like to hear," she sighed.

And the viral element sure seems to be working...

There was some great coverage in this morning’s Congress Daily of a press conference organized yesterday by the Student Association for Voter Empowerment (headed by former YP4 Fellow Matthew Segal) and People For the American Way Foundation with key Congressional leaders on the problems young voters are likely to face during this upcoming election season.

Around the country, activists and organizers are concerting efforts to ensure that our right to vote is fully recognize, restored and respected for all of us!

Campus Camp Wellstone's Mattie Weiss just posted a scathing entry about the underresourcing of young voter organizing at a time when we have the potential to decide the presidential election.

She notes:

[N]umbers indicate that 6.5 million people under 30 voted in this year's primaries and caucuses, and that the overall youth vote has risen from 9 percent in 2000 to 17 percent in 2008.

Meanwhile, who are campaigns focusing on? Swing voters and “hockey moms.”

Endorse The Youth Agenda!

Generation Vote, www.genvote.org, a national alliance of 18 youth organizations, understands that the future is at stake right now - ours, our country's and our world's - and we take seriously the power and responsibility to shape it.

Generation Vote is our generation - millions of young Americans hungry for
change for one simple reason: the issues we face seriously impact our lives and
communities. Our commitment in 2008 is to demand leadership that shares our
values, from the city council to the White House.

Monday- as far as Mondays go was pretty splendid, now as I head into Tuesday amidst my work I realize that today I'm leaving to fly to the Twin Cities to train at Power Vote.

This was forwarded to me this morning... I Vote, You Vote (a project of American Democracy Institute and CREDO Mobile) is "a peer-to-peer system built to get more young people to vote. It is more than just voter registration because it allows politically engaged individuals to finally get their social networks to register."