Can local bands make voting cool again?
There's a free show on Saturday aimed at getting Gen Z registered — and excited — to vote.
At the risk of sounding rude: The state of voter turnout in Nebraska is embarrassing.
Only 29% of the electorate showed up for the primary election in May. This was a steep decline from the 74% of registered voters who cast a ballot in 2024. And while that percentage sounds a lot better, it also means around 450,000 Nebraskans who could have voted didn't bother. We can debate the reasons for these abysmal numbers; I tend to think that the failure — from every political party — to field candidates who actually excite people is a huge contributing factor. But whatever your preferred explanation, we can all agree (I hope) that boosting turnout is a good thing!
Enter the most exciting voter education event I've seen in a while: A Rock the Vote show at the Bourbon headlined by local femme punk project Estrogen Projection with support from a bunch of interesting and innovative local bands: Thirst Things First, The Post Service Collective and The Hangin' Cowboys. While anyone is welcome, this all ages show is specifically aimed at getting Gen Z registered — and excited — to vote.
Saturday, August 1
Rock The Vote!
+ When: 4 pm (doors), 5 pm (show)
+ Where: Bourbon Theatre, 1415 O St. (Google Maps)
+ Cost: FREE! | There will be options to donate and all donations will go to artists.
"We love voter education, voters' rights and all that, and we wish that more young people would vote," Lanie Schlueter, guitarist and vocalist of Estrogen Projection, told me.
Lanie said she understands why some opt out of elections. Life is tough for a lot of people right now, and there's not much faith that governments will do the right thing. But, she said, getting people engaged in democracy is one of the most important things a band can do.
"It might make some of the younger kids get a little bit more excited to go and exercise their civic rights," she said, referring to middle and high school students. "They can't register to vote, but they'll understand that it's important to do and that it's cool and that cool people who are in bands vote."
That's basically been the approach of Rock the Vote for decades: Recruit cool artists and register their passionate fans. Originally founded by the music industry in the 1990s to fight the threat of government censorship, the organization has long relied on big, splashy, celebrity-driven appeals. Think half-naked Madonna wrapping herself in the American flag and telling MTV viewers: "If you don't vote, you're gonna get a spanking." Over time the organization's youthful image has faded a bit; it struggled through the 2000s with financial debt and internal strife, and some of its efforts at boosting millennial turnout in the 2010s were, in retrospect, pretty cringe.
But there's no denying Rock the Vote has an iconic legacy and a name that still carries weight, especially in the music community.
"It's recognizable, it has credibility," said Matt Ashmore, a local print shop owner who organized this weekend's show. "There's some nostalgia there too, if I was being honest."
Matt said adults don't always do a good job of promoting civic responsibility. But when kids and teenagers hear that message from their peers — or, say, from a band they like — it might hit differently.
"We definitely want to get people more energized about voting, make sure they understand that their vote really does matter and that it is a cool thing to do," he said.
Saturday's show will feature more than just music. It's also a voter education event and a collaboration between a dozen different community organizations, including Civic Nebraska, Nebraska Appleseed, OutNebraska, and many others.
"We all thought this was a perfect opportunity to meet young voters at an event that is really geared to them," said Jean McGuire, president of the League of Women Voters of Lincoln-Lancaster County, another of the show's community partners.
The league won't be registering people to vote directly, but they will be providing resources, like QR codes so folks can register online and voter registration forms that can be filled out at home. All the partnering organizations will also have a chance to speak directly to the audience between sets and deliver their own versions of the "voting is cool" message.
Look, I can be pretty cynical — and have been in the pages of this newsletter — and I don't think voting alone will be enough to halt the rising tide of fascism in the U.S. But I know this for sure: Not voting won't make things any better. Maybe you're one of those 450,000 Nebraskans who is checked out or wholly uninterested in elections, but you should still show up on Saturday. Because being in community with good people matters just as much or more than your vote!
As Lanie of Estrogen Projection told me: "Even if the act of voting isn't what ends up changing things, getting together and mobilizing and having conversations is something that can really make a huge difference."
A good reminder!
~ Ty
The news media is dying. There's less and less local coverage of events that matter. And you know what? I sure can't fix that. I'm just one guy! But if you appreciate the work I'm doing, you can help ensure that it continues by signing up for a paid subscription to This Week In Lincoln.
P.S. Check out these resources from the Nebraska Secretary of State's website and make sure you're actually registered to vote.
Also I wrote about Estrogen Projection for the Flatwater Free Press earlier this year. It was a fun piece, go check it out if you haven't already.
Tynan Stewart
Finally, paid subscribers get to read a little historical digression about a local Rock the Vote event from the '90s. (If you're not already a paid subscriber, you know what to do!)