WWE Superstars and Divas will be attending the Democratic and Republican National Conventions over the next two weeks as part of our Smackdown Your Vote! efforts to encourage more voters, ages 30 and younger, to vote in this year’s election.
Batista, Shelton Benjamin and Candice Michelle will attend the Democratic National Convention in Denver from Aug. 26 to 31. Shawn Michaels, Mr. Kennedy and Mickie James will attend the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn., from Sept. 1 to 4.
On Monday, WWE will post its version of an online debate between Senator Barack Obama and Senator John McCain based on their written responses to Smackdown Your Vote!’s national 18-30 Voter Issues Paper (VIP), which outlines the critical issues and questions from younger voters based on national polling.
During the conventions, to promote voter registration, WWE will feed video footage from WWE Superstars’ activities at the conventions into WWE programming, and WWE.com will provide complete convention coverage. In partnership with Cable in the Classroom, WWE also will videotape footage for use in a series of videos for K-12 schools nationwide via Cable in the Classroom’s free, online learning game, eLECTIONS: Your Adventure in Politics. eLECTIONS is a standards-based election simulation being used in classroom’s nationwide featuring content from CNN Student News, C-SPAN and History Channel. WWE has already worked with one of its partners, University of Virginia’s Youth Leadership Initiative, to create curriculum materials for use in 8,000 classrooms based on the 18-30 VIP.
WWE also has created video PSAs featuring John Cena and Mr. Kennedy to promote a voter registration initiative with AT&T and Rock the Vote.
Following the conventions, WWE.com will continue to cover the election and encourage young Americans to vote. WWE Magazine, one of the most popular men’s magazines on newsstands, will feature WWE Superstars and Divas discussing the issues in the election in its November issue, which hits newsstands before Election Day.
This is the third presidential election in which WWE’s Smackdown Your Vote! has been active. The program has been engaged in national, state and local elections each year since 2000. In 2004, 20.1 million 18-29-year-olds voted, a 4.3 million jump over 2000. The turnout increase among the youngest voters was more than double that of any other age group. Young voter turnout is one of the top news headlines of 2008 with turnout doubling and tripling in early 2008 contests. Partners in the Smackdown Your Vote! initiative include Harvard University’s Institute of Politics, League of Women Voters, National Association of Secretaries of State, University of Virginia’s Youth Leadership Initiative, Sacred Heart University and Mobilize.org.
WWE Universe, stay tuned to WWE.com for complete coverage of WWE’s involvement at the upcoming Democratic and Republican National Conventions. Make your voice heard. Join WWE and Smackdown Your Vote! Visit SmackdownYourVote.com to learn more and register to vote.
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