Actors America Ferrera (Ugly Betty) and Hayden Panettiere (Heroes) will serve as spokespeople for Declare Yourself, a nonpartisan multimedia campaign designed to inspire eligible 18-year-olds to register and vote in the 2008 presidential election. Film and TV producer Norman Lear (The Princess Bride, All in the Family) began the campaign in 2004. It will be promoted by Yahoo!, MySpace, YouTube, Google, Friendster, Evite, Comedy Central, and Clear Channel.
"The right to vote is a rite of passage as important as any, and we invite other partners from the worlds of business, media, entertainment, education, and the Internet to join us in this campaign," Lear said. According to a survey conducted after the 2004 presidential election by Princeton Survey Research Associates International, 83 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds who downloaded a voter registration form from Declare Yourself's website said they registered to vote. Of those, 76 percent said they voted in 2004.
To learn more about the voting process or obtain election information, visit www.declareyourself.com.