Activists target young voters

ANTIGUN LOBBY: BIRTHDAY GIFTS FOR 18-YEAR-OLDS CONTAINING VOTER REGISTRATION FORMS

Aim is to elect a gun-control friendly Congress.

Gun control advocates are planning to send birthday packages to newly turned 18-yearolds in 10 states where they believe progun lawmakers are vulnerable. Inside each: a voter registration form.

The effort is part of a teen voter sign-up campaign aimed at electing a gun control-friendly Congress in November by seizing the momentum of a movement driven by young people shaken by gun violence, organisers said.

“I think young people are going to make a huge difference in this election and the new energy we’re seeing is going to tip the scales in a number of races,” said Isabelle James, political director for Giffords, which advocates more restrictive gun laws.

The campaign – “Our Lives, Our Votes” – combines the efforts of Giffords and two other groups following last month’s massive rallies inspired by the deadly February school shooting in Parkland, Florida. Organisers said they hoped to register at least 50 000 18- and 19-year-olds in 10 battleground states.

“America’s children took to the streets and led marches with a unified message that rang out across the country: we need a congress that will protect us,” former Democratic Representative Gabrielle Giffords, co-founder of Giffords, said in an e-mailed statement. Giffords was seriously wounded in a 2011 Arizona shooting rampage.

The other groups behind Our Lives, Our Votes are Everytown for Gun Safety, which includes more than 1 000 current and former mayors, and NextGen America, a liberal group founded by billionaire hedge fund manager Tom Steyer.

Starting with a $1.5 million (about R18 million) war chest, organisers said they would reach teenagers with online voter registration ads, as well as the direct-mail birthday packages.

Organisers said the elections they were targeting included competitive races for the Senate and House of Representatives in Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin.

Republicans are battling to maintain control of both congressional chambers in the November elections.

Although the teen-voter registration campaign is nonpartisan, “the sad political reality is that we do need a Democratic majority [in congress]. We need leadership that’s willing to work with us,” James said. – Reuters