We’re pleased to report that the Student Association for Voter Empowerment (SAVE) just deployed Evoca Media Services to achieve its mission of increased youth voter turnout and election protection using mobile phones and the Internet. Now everyone can call +1.866.558-4165 to put their voices online at the SAVE website. Powered by Evoca, SAVE announced its “Voter Protection Hotline” to encourage young voters to report voter experiences and voting irregularities. With the global reach of the Internet, anyone can listen online. What is a youth voter in the U.S.? Any U.S. citizen between the ages of 18 and 29.

SAVE announced its partnership with Evoca on Friday, July 25 in Washington, DC at its national press forum entitled “Asserting the Youth Voice,” featuring Thomas Friedman, national best-selling author of The World Is Flat and New York Times columnist; Judy Woodruff, senior correspondent for The News Hour with Jim Lehrer; Eleanor Clift, contributing editor of Newsweek and a regular panelist on The McLaughlin Group; Joe Scarborough, former U.S. Congressman and MSNBC Anchor of Morning Joe; David Broder, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist of the Washington Post; and Mike McCurry, former White House press secretary to President Bill Clinton. They all agreed that in the 2008 national election young voters could make history if they use their 20% “block” to caste decisive votes in the election of the U.S. President, Senators, Members of Congress, as well as many state and local officials and ballot initiatives.

A national non-profit, non-partisan youth voter engagement organization, SAVE operates chapters that work with college administrators to institutionalize voter registration, host debates, discussions and town hall forums centered on electoral awareness, coordinate grassroots efforts to reform elections, lead registration programs for local high schools, disseminate voting information and resources, and collaborate with statewide press outlets to bring young voters to a forefront in the media. SAVE has held numerous press conferences on youth voting trends, hosted national town hall forums with presidential candidates, contributed to Congressional hearings, directed higher education-meetings on civic education, been featured in dozens of leading newspapers and media outlets, and formed partnerships the United States Student Association, Student PIRGs (public interest research groups), and Mobilize.org.

“As the organization that has initiated national dialogue about youth voter disenfranchisement, SAVE looks forward to this partnership with Evoca to address these obstacles on a wider platform,” said Matthew Segal, the executive director of SAVE. “We held a hearing recently which identified pressing problems such as ineffective allocation of voting machines, ambiguous definitions of “domicile,” and deceptive tactics to deter young voters on various college campuses. We are encouraging students from around the country to call in and report any problems so we can address them quickly and appropriately.”

As the leading Voice-to-Web solutions provider, we were enthused to be part of this historic effort to increase the youth vote in the United States. In the recent news release about this exciting announcement, Murem Sharpe, Evoca CEO, added, “SAVE exemplifies the mission of Evoca to empower voices of concerned citizens around the world, using the two most democratic communications tools ever created, the phone and the Internet. With Evoca’s Voice-to-Web services, voices travel without boundaries.”