ST. PAUL Minn. June 4 2001 – The Smackdown Your Vote! drive to register young voters roared into Minnesota’s capital today to announce details of its national 2001 voter registration campaign and to be honored by Minnesota lawmakers.

"We want the 2001 Smackdown Your Vote! effort to be even bigger than last year when we registered more than 150 000 new voters in a little more than two months " said Olympic gold medallist and WWE Superstar Kurt Angle who is the honorary chairman for Smackdown Your Vote!

"We will be registering voters at virtually every WWE event held in 28 states and the District of Columbia from now through November " said Angle. "Young people from all 50 states will be able to register on-line through wwevote.com."

Minnesota Rep. Tony Sertich (DFL-Chisholm) issued a proclamation commending the Smackdown Your Vote! partners for their efforts to get young people more involved in the democratic process.

"Young people are affected by the decisions that politicians make on everything from college tuition to the minimum wage to funding for public schools " said Sertich. "The easiest way to make our voices heard is to vote. By tying voter registration to one of the most popular – and my personal favorite – kinds of entertainment Smackdown Your Vote helps us all be heard. I strongly commend this partnership for stepping up and getting involved in this important issue."

Smackdown Your Vote! is a nonpartisan initiative of the National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS) the National Foundation for Women Legislators the Youth Vote Coalition Youth-e-Vote Project Vote Smart and WWE Entertainment Inc. (WWE).

"Smackdown Your Vote! registered tens of thousands of new voters last fall " said Minnesota Secretary of the State Mary Kiffmeyer who serves on the NASS New Millennium Young Voters Committee. "As a representative of the nation’s top state election officials we know that WWE has tapped into an audience that doesn’t always hear a lot about voting and politics. I’m delighted we could bring this project to Minnesota."

The Youth Vote Coalition has received a grant from WWE Entertainment to underwrite a full-time Smackdown Your Vote! coordinator who will oversee voter registration drives around the country linked to the schedule of 70 WWE events through November. This field coordinator will also collaborate with the Youth Vote Coalition’s 25 field staff working across the country to involve young adults in the political process.

"The Smackdown Your Vote! campaign provided hundreds of volunteers and thousands of registered voters for Youth Vote’s field sites in 2000 and we plan to do the same in 2001 through this historic ‘off year’ election initiative " said Ryan Friedrichs interim executive director for the Youth Vote Coalition.

The other Smackdown Your Vote! partners say the fact that this is a non-presidential election year does not diminish the importance of voter registration.

"Even though 2001 has more local elections than national ones this kind of campaign is as important as ever " said Donald Tighe of Youth-e-Vote. "It is never too early for young Americans to realize that this country’s political system is their political system – to learn about to understand and to influence by participating. Students younger than 18 can begin this journey at our website (youthevote.net)."

Voter registration tables were staffed at the event by Secretary Kiffmeyer’s office and the Youth Vote Coalition and were to be staffed again at tonight’s WWE Raw is War ™ event at the Target Center in Minneapolis.

The Smackdown Your Vote! campaign held high school rallies in Hartford and Cincinnati last month to promote National High School Voter Registration Month. In addition the campaign includes TV and radio public service announcements featuring Angle that will soon be distributed around the country.

[Editor’s note: A map and a list of World Wrestling WWE events where voter registration will be conducted between now and November is available at wwevote.com. States to be visited are in chronological order Minnesota New Jersey New York Washington South Carolina Georgia Alabama Connecticut Rhode Island Massachusetts Ohio Pennsylvania District of Columbia California Indiana Illinois Michigan Louisiana Texas Kentucky Tennessee Mississippi Kansas Oklahoma Virginia Missouri Nebraska North Carolina and Arizona. Some states will be visited more than once. A list of 2001 mayoral elections is available at http://www.usmayors.org/uscm/elections/electioncitiesfall2001.pdf ]

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Media contacts:

Gary Davis WWE (203) 353-5066 gary.davis@wweent.com

Virgil McDill Rep. Sertich’s office 651 296-8873

Kent Kaiser Sec’y Kiffmeyer’s office 651-297-8919

Ryan Friedrichs Youth Vote Coalition (202) 263-0521

Kay Albowicz National Association of Secretaries of State (202) 624-3525

Adelaide Elm Project Vote Smart (406) 859-8683

Robin Read National Foundation for Women Legislators (202) 337-3565

Donald Tighe Youth-e-Vote (202) 785-5920

 

 

SMACKDOWN YOUR VOTE! PARTNERS

Founded in August 2000 Smackdown Your Vote! is a partnership of organizations taking a non-partisan approach to getting young people involved in the political process and registered to vote. The members of Smackdown Your Vote! are:

The National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS) founded in 1904 is the nation’s oldest non-partisan government association representing the 50 states the District of Columbia Puerto Rico and the territories of American Samoa Guam and the Virgin Islands.

The National Foundation for Women Legislators (NFWL) provides strategic resources to elected women for leadership development and effective government through conferences seminars policy committees issue-education materials professional and personal relationships and networking at both the state and federal levels. As a non-profit the NFWL does not take ideological positions on any current issue but rather exists to assist women leaders in the process of legislative debate networking re-elections public opinion molding and leadership.

Project Vote Smart was founded by former Presidents Ford and Carter and other national leaders as a non-profit non-partisan research library. Access to the Project’s data is available through the Vote Smart web site (www.vote-smart.org) and the toll-free Voter’s Research Hotline (888-VOTE SMART) staffed by student interns and volunteers.

Youth-e-Vote is a national campaign to increase the involvement and awareness of young Americans in the political process. Youth-e-Vote is a national coalition of educators youth groups and technology specialists devoted to making future voters of today’s students by promoting civics education in American classrooms. The coalition also provides a risk-free test of online voting helps to close the Digital Divide and inspires parents to vote. It is the first national registration and online voting project in American history.

Youth Vote Coalition is the largest most diverse non-partisan coalition in history to engage young people ages 18-30 in politics. The Youth Vote Coalition consists of more than 75 national organizations representing hundreds of groups and millions of young people. The Youth Vote Coalition calls for youth debates at the presidential state and local levels. It devotes an unprecedented amount of resources to building state and local Youth Vote Coalitions. The Youth Vote Coalition was formerly known as Youth Vote 2000.

WWE Entertainment Inc. is an integrated media and entertainment company headquartered in Stamford Connecticut with sales offices in New York City Chicago and Toronto. The company can be found on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol WWE and online at WWE.com and WWECORPBIZ.com.