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.