Election Alerts Aimed at Youth: Johnson County's Election Commissioner Seeks to Raise Turnout Using Text Messages.
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By Finn Bullers, The Kansas City Star, Mo.  Sep. 5--The best way to reach April Newby is on her cell phone.   In July, the Shawnee resident sent more than 800 text messages from her phone -- on average, more than one an hour.
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By KRIS WISE  DAILY MAIL CAPITOL REPORTER  A new study shows young voters could be critical to the outcome of November's midterm elections in West Virginia, where youth turnout in similar elections has been declining in the past two decades to less than 16 percent.
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WARSAW (International Herald Tribune) - The text message spread with viral speed among the cellphones of Polish teens. With national parliamentary elections coming up Sunday, kids had a clear mission: "Steal your grandmother's ID," the text jokingly implored. The message referred to the conventional wisdom here that conservative older women put the ruling Law and Justice Party and the Kaczynski brothers - the notorious twins with the round faces of aging cherubs who are prime minister and president - into office. Without their identity cards, the grandmothers would not be able to vote. If granny does not vote, the government could be driven from office.  Teenagers guffawed. The Kaczynskis fumed. Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski said that those who repeated the message "act against you and also against the Polish nation." The small Polish Peasants Party quickly ran its own advertisement in which a grandmother catches her grandson in the act of snatching her identity card. She tells there's no need for him to steal it, because she plans to vote for the Peasants Party and not Law and Justice. In the previous 2005 election, Law and Justice benefited from low voter turnout, needing only 3.2 million votes in a country of 38 million to take control of government in a coalition with several smaller parties. The most recent coalition fell apart over a contentious scandal-filled summer, leading to early elections this weekend.  Opponents are counting on a strong turnout by younger voters this time around. The latest opinion polls show Civic Platform, a free-market, pro-European rival party, poised to win the election Sunday. But polls here have proved highly unreliable, skewed by the country's historically lethargic turnout, which was a little over 40 percent in the elections two years ago.
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Text messaging is playing a growing role in the 2008 presidential race as a handful of candidates look to the technology to reach younger voters often glued to their mobile phones.
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The war in Iraq; jobs and the economy; terrorism. For voters nationwide, those issues seem sure to determine the outcome on Election Day. But in several critical swing states, the conservative push to amend state constitutions and ban gay marriage is giving delegates and party officials a way to lure a group of voters &#151; especially traditional churchgoers &#151; who could tip these states to President Bush.
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Adam Bigenho, tech guy for the Montgomery County Board of Elections, spent part of yesterday training election judges how to match up computer plugs at polling places Monday night as they prepare for the next day's primary.
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Consumers using standard messaging technology can rest assured that their texts are not stored long term. The sexually explicit text-message chat between Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and a top aide that came to light used a paging technology more akin to e-mail.
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By Tim Hrenchir  By Tim Hrenchir  THE CAPITAL-JOURNAL  Shawnee County and Topeka will team up to put Shawnee County Jail inmates to work cleaning up the city.
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Swing-state voters might want to let  the answering machine screen their calls over the next several  weeks -- President Bush or Sen. John Kerry could be on the  line.
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By The Associated Press  A sampling of youth outreach efforts in the presidential campaign:  Republican Mike Huckabee: The former Arkansas governor, 51, has a Web site geared to young voters and will soon start a blog from his campaign travels.
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By Frank Pignanelli & LaVarr Webb  With the campaign season in full swing, a number of legislative elections are capturing the attention of political observers. These contests will have important results, not just for the political parties but for the Legislature and county governments.
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FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. -- With voters jamming phone lines saying they haven&#39;t received absentee ballots in the mail, elections officials planned to mail out thousands of replacement ballots.
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By Melody Mcdonald, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Texas  Jun. 17--FORT WORTH -- Tarrant County prosecutor Lori Varnell looked at the teen-age girl's MySpace page, and a red flag went up.
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By Kevin Canfield, Tulsa World, Okla.  Sep. 9--Tulsa County Commissioner Randi Miller said Friday that she would need to learn more about an Oklahoma County commissioner's plan to reduce crowding in county jails before she could support it.
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By Chelsea Phua, The Sacramento Bee, Calif.  Jun. 7--A new sign-posting ordinance will give Sacramento County residents early notice of development projects proposed in their neighborhoods, county officials said.
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Gov. Ed Rendell plans to put hand-picked state officials at county election offices during the Nov. 2 presidential election to watch for any problems in this battleground state.
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A text messaging service to provide young people with sexual health information is being launched by a charity.