Young voters pledge to have sex

by Jessica Scarpati

The Daily Free Press

(U-WIRE) BOSTON - If you're sick of the same-old, same-old in bed, a group of Harvard and Columbia University alumni are hoping college students will try a new type of orgasm that can only be obtained through voting - a votergasm.

Votergasm.org President Michelle Collins defined the dually functioning verb and noun.

"When you go out vote and have hot sex with a young voter, culminating and completing that cycle, you have completed a votergasm," Collins said.

Votergasm.org is an online voter initiative campaign launched Sept. 4 to get 100,000 people nationwide to pledge to have sex with voters on election night and withhold sex from non-voters.

With 6,000 pledges to the cause, Collins said she anticipates "intense, multiple votergasms" the night of Nov. 2.

"Young people these days are hot," said Collins, a freelance writer. "They look better than ever, and they've got an opinion that really matters. Why not combine these things and make voting sexy and hot?"

Voters can pledge on the Web site to three commitment levels: "Citizens" promise to withhold sex from non-voters the week following the election, "Patriots" promise to have sex with a voter on election night and withhold sex from non-voters the week following the election, and "American heroes" pledge to have sex with a voter on election night and withhold sex from non-voters for the next four years.

Collins, an "American hero," said she and eight friends came up with the idea to bring people between 18 and 25 together for two things young people are not doing enough - voting and having sex.

"We thought it was really fun and would get people's attention to get them politically and sexually active," she said. "Not enough young people are voting, and even lower numbers of people are having sex. It's absolutely depressing."

Through the Web site participants can organize and search for Votergasm parties in their area to meet and mingle with other voters the night of the election. There are about 30 on the Web site.

Atara Rich-Shea, a Cambridge resident and Votergasm "citizen," said she and her roommate will hold their own party.

"This was a really smart gimmick and really funny," said Rich-Shea, a friend of Collins. "People don't think that politics can be absolutely hilarious, and getting involved politically doesn't have to be about arguing about hot button issues."

While Boston University junior Justin Williams called the campaign "generally a good thing," he said it isolates voters of an older age bracket.

"There's a lot of effort being put in this year into getting younger Americans to vote, whether it's sex or death threats," Williams said. "If it gets people to vote and hopefully gets Bush out of office, then that's good. But I don't think Americans are that sexually compelled or deprived."

Boston University history Professor Julian Zelizer said campaigns like Votergasm trivialize the highly contested presidential election between President Bush and Sen. John Kerry.

"It cheapens the political process by equating politics with prostitution," Zelizer said. "This is exactly the kind of image that has discouraged so many Americans young and old from participating in politics."

Collins argued the conditions are legal and consenting - and not too far from the young dating scene anyway.

"No money is being exchanged," she said. "We're just trying to be an icebreaker. We're being blunt and getting all the awkward stuff out of the way."