Monsters on Denver’s Walking Mall, Groaning about Votes

By Robert Struckman, 8-27-08

	Caption: Reed College senior Zoe Vrabel in the convention zone.

Among the regular sights in the political zone around the Democratic National Convention in Denver this week are zombies, vampires and other ghoulish creatures.

They’re part of a growing youth campaign to get you to vote.

Called Trick-or-Vote, its a movement dreamed up by a group called the Bus Federation. The group’s members—including Forward Montana, New Era Colorado, New Mexico Youth Organized, the Oregon Bus Project and the Washington Bus. The group has offices in 25 cities in 11 states across the West.

“Yesterday I was a cat. A monstrous cat with pink, well, actually purple cat ears. They were pretty hideous,” said Forward Montana director Matt Singer.

The idea with the outfits is to take the one day when it’s OK for thousands of people to knock on the doors of strangers—Halloween—and link it to Election Day, always conveniently just a few days away.

In 2004, the nonpartisan group mobilized in Oregon, and 800 volunteers canvassed about 30,000 homes. It was the biggest one-day canvass in the history of Oregon, and research says the effort is one of the best ways to get registered voters to the polls, Singer said.

This year the goal is for volunteers to knock on more than 100,000 doors.

“I think we’ll knock on more than that,” Singer said. “We’re not telling people how to vote. We’re just asking people to vote.”

The Trick-or-Voters will be in Minnesota next week for the Republican National Convention.

Expect a whole mummy entourage, shuffling near the convention zone.