US candidates employ tech power, BBC News. 

Ethan Eilon from the collegerepublicans.org has been campaigning for the Republican Party through a network called Storm.

"It allows our members to join up with the rest of their chapter and the rest of their state organisation, get involved with events that are going on, communicate with one another.

"They also earn impact points so that we can then incentivise them to go out and do all the hard work that needs to be done between now and November," he said. 

Web-Use Reform Happy Ending, Sunlight Foundation.

In May of 2007, the Sunlight Foundation released the Open House Project report, which included an entire chapter on the issue of Franking Reform. That chapter, prepared by David All and Paul Blumental, has guided our advocacy and discussions of web use restrictions since then.

Barbera responds: College Republicans investing in success, College Democrats should try grown-up politics, CR Nation. 

On Aug. 27 we deployed a team of 50 full-time field representatives who are on college campuses around the country every day recruiting new members for the College Republicans and channeling those recruits into volunteer efforts. In the few weeks the team has been in the field, they have already recruited 46,875 new members. The field representative for the state of New Mexico has recruited 969 new members this month, including 297 at UNM alone.

Study: Omitting cell phone users may affect polls, Newsweek.

The finding, in a report this week by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center, may increase pressure on polling organizations to include people who use only cell phones in their surveys. While many major polls including The Associated Press-GfK Poll already interview cell phone users, some do not, largely because doing so is more expensive.

I've been thinking about this for a while but the idea is still a little half-baked. I need your input in the comments.

This election cycle, if you're going to contribute to a cause other than your favorite Republican politician, why not support a cause to arm College Republicans with video cameras and editing equipment with a promise that they will help hold Democrats accountable for what they're saying on the trail?

In other words, an army of S.R Sidarth's, the most-famous modern volunteer of the 2006 election cycle who captured this damaging moment. The only difference: The army will be Republican. The target: vulnerable Democrats who say one thing in Washington and do another back home in their district.

Sounds good right?

The only problem is that no such cause exists (yet).

Technically, it's easy to do. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the CR network is vast and they're more than willing to step-up-to-the-plate for a good cause. With the infrastructure already in place, all they need is direction and the tools to get the job done right.

So this election, rather than arranging protests and painting signs, why not help provide video content to the masses of bloggers who will inevitably push a narrative to the mainstream media in their respective states?

Brand it CRTube and make it a clearinghouse of campaign moments. Put it all up and let the rest of us sift through for the nuggets.

I'm willing to help in many ways from providing video/editing training to finding a way to raise the bling through Slatecard. Together, we could do it.

Should we put our heads together on this one and come up with a plan?

I'm ready if you are.

Crossposted from Eyeon08.com.

I thought this was an encouraging sign. The College Republican National Committee is encouraging members to engage on YouTube. I don't recall the College Dems doing this:

The CRNC has started a YouTube group, College Republican Debate Questions, to encourage College Republicans across the country to submit questions for the Republican YouTube debate in November.

Charlie Smith leads by example with the first video question.

H/T to CRNation.

Liberal blogger Matt Stoller of OpenLeft draws our attention to a new widget produced by Rock The Vote, which he's calling, the "ActBlue for voter registration."

Stoller cautiously concludes that this widget *might* be a big deal and includes some screeners:

I've been playing around with this new widget from Rock the Vote, which lets anyone create their own voter registration program, kind of like Actblue for voter registration. It's potentially groundbreaking, and you can sign up here.

If I mounted a serious voter registration drive on my site, I would be able to keep the contact information of whoever registered. That means that I can contact them the day they vote, and go to politicians and say 'hey, 1834 voters, including 23 in your district', registered to vote through this site. You ought to listen to their concerns.

Stoller shouldn't have been so cautious. This widget is a really big deal, because it's going to help activists do exactly what James Durbin wrote about, "Go where the youth are." Let's dig in a bit more.

When you read about Karl Rove and Lee Atwater's early days as young GOP operatives, they spent a lot of their time traveling to college campuses, training college Republicans how to hold effective voter registration drives. As Karl Rove said back when he had more hair:

“First of all voter registration is probably the most important function that we are undertaking now. We are also seeking to train college students to run voter registration drives and work to involve young people in campaigns. You can’t get a 35 year old to teach the Republican Party how to get the young people…just can’t rely upon it. Young people have to reach other young people and that’s what we’re seeking to do.”

Tomorrow's Karl Rove's and Lee Atwater's need to follow their role models and start registering their friends and colleagues as Republicans.

The campus registration drives should absolutely remain a part of the strategy, but thanks to modern tools like this Rock The Vote widget, we can now go where everyone in college spends a lot of their time: online.

The further we lower the barrier of entry to the democratic process the better (for both sides). However, it's my hope that we'll be able to hold our ground with the Gen Next GOP which we're currently losing.