How do you persuade two million American youngsters to get off their behinds and cast a vote in the U.S. presidential election? Hit them where it hurts, right in the Xbox 360.

Rock The Vote is a political pressure group in the U.S. that tries to encourage young people in to taking an interest in politics and most importantly, voting in elections. The group uses pop culture, music, and technology to reach out to sections of society that otherwise wouldn’t get excited about politics in the slightest.

With the U.S. presidential election just two months away, Rock The Vote has announced a partnership with Microsoft that will see Xbox 360 owners able to have their say in the run up to Barack Obama’s fight with John McCain for the White House in November.

According to the press release on Xbox Press, the partnership will see Xbox 360 owners able to register to vote, take part in presidential polls and communicate with the two candidates via Xbox Live from Monday August 25th.

This coincides with the first day of the Democratic National Convention which Barack Obama and his newly announced running mate Senator Joseph Biden will be attending. As part of this deal, Microsoft will have an Xbox 360 presence at both the Democratic and Republican conventions promoting Rock The Vote and hopefully allaying politicians fears that video games are unsociable and harmful to youngsters.

Heather Smith, executive director of Rock the Vote, said of the partnership:

Xbox is a natural partner to help us reach out to youth voters. To realize our goal of registering 2 million young Americans by this fall, we need to go where young Americans are, and there’s no doubt in our minds that many are on Xbox 360 and Xbox LIVE.

Xbox is the latest big name to get in bed with Rock The Vote, with MySpace and other social networks having already been used as a way of connecting with youngsters on their own ground and promoting ways of getting involved with politics at an early age.

Xbox Live is a good platform for Rock The Vote to use as it has over 12 million subscribers worldwide and a high proportion of the 18-25 year old demographic that need to be persuaded to become more involved with politics.

However, whether using Xbox Live in this way actually results in anyone voting come November remains to be seen. Xbox 360 owners are much more likely to be too busy playing their favourite game to bother getting out and voting.

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Entry was posted on Saturday, August 23rd, 2008 at 5:48 pm under Opinion, Technology.

Read more entries by Dave Parrack.
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