New Era Colorado is the local charter of the Bus Federation--an innovative vehicle for hands-on democracy (and yes, we actually have buses). All five states making up this federation will be in Denver for the Bus Fed Party.  Be there.  Here are the details:

Wednesday, August 27th
9:00 pm -- wee hours of the morning
"The Red Building"
2930 Larimer St, Denver CO

Music from Ari Hest, Ginger Ninjas, and more
On-premise screen printing, tattoo artist, live art & mural painting, interactive videos, dirnks, plenty of bloggers and politicos to go around 

Find out about what else we are doing in Denver during the DNC here. 

Our friends at NARAL are throwing a party for choice in Denver right before the Bus Fed party.  Get yer tickets early and save some money and stop in before you party with the bus(es). 

We got the bus and we're ready for the road! We just announced the very first New Era Bus Trip and it's right around the bend on September 6th.  We've only got one more thing to say about that:  GET ON THE BUS!

Click here to reserve your seat for the first New Era Bus Trip of 2008!

"What's a bus trip?" 

Glad you asked. 

...And then we throw a post-trip party with all the typical tomfoolery.

The first trip will have a volunteer pickup in both Boulder and Denver and we'll be heading to a swing district near you. Sign up now to make sure you get a seat.

Vote naked and send in your mail-in ballot! As of Thursday, 15,094 people have already returned their mail ballot.

Or, if you didn't request a mail-in ballot, you have yet another chance at voting with ease and pleasure because early voting began today, August 2nd, at 10am! For a list of early voting places, dates, and times, go to your County Clerk's website (click here if you're in Boulder County).

 And for all you unaffiliated folks...

If you're concerned because, when you registered, you thought it was too much work to choose a party, and since then you've chosen one and subsequently found out that you need to be affiliated to vote in the primaries, then you're in luck. While the deadline for changing affiliation has passed, unaffiliated registered voters may affiliate to vote in a primary at early voting and precinct polling places.

So head to your early polling place and vote before the rush, or get naked and mail in your ballot before it's too late and you're already clothed.

Since the beginning of this year, 160,000+ people have signed up to take part in democracy in 10 counties that represent about 80% of the voters of Colorado. Steve thinks all these people have registered to vote because "everybody is aware of what's going on". Read more about this and other things that Steve thinks in the Rocky Mountain News (but careful not to look at the ridiculous photo). 

New Era Colorado will be doing voter registration at the next two Etown tapings: Punch Brothers featuring Chris Thile and and Tift Merritt on Monday, July 28th, and Ray LaMontagne and Ingrid Michaelson on August 8th, both of which will be taped at the Boulder Theater.

Etown is an exciting radio broadcast heard from coast to coast. Every etown show is taped in front of a live audience and features performances from many of today's top musical artists, as well as conversations and information about the world around us.

Check out their blog for news, music reviews, pictures, video and more! 

Millions of new voters are going to be storming their polling places this November and many states are going to be using new voting technologies, a combination which will likely conspire to create long lines and poll workers that are none too happy.

According to an article in the New York Times, the U.S. is back-stepping away from touch-screen machines and galloping toward the paper ballots of optical scanners; this means that about half of all voters will use different machines than the ones they used in the last presidential election. With Senator Obama expected to attract voting-virgins to the polls, election officials say they are "worried that the system may buckle under the increased strain". The last thing any of us wants is to increase that strain by going to the polls and potentially enduring the weight of the buckling system on our shoulders and consciences.

But, there is a way out of this moral conundrum of wanting to vote but not wanting your vote to overload "the system" (such as it is). Mail-in ballots are our dark knight, swooping in to save the day. Signing up for a mail-in ballot just requires filling out the same voter registration form you filled out to register in the first place. But this time, check the "mail-in ballot" box and your ballot will magically appear at your home 3 weeks before the election. Then you can read the ballot initiatives in your birthday suit with a dictionary in hand, and mail it back at your earliest convenience (as long as your earliest convenience falls before the election on November 4th).

Vote naked and avoid the imminent polling place chaos. What's not to love?

Email Carrie@NewEraColorado.org for details if you want to help out! 

It's like mass transit--only for democracy.

As many of you know, it's been a longtime dream of ours to have a New Era Bus. And guess what? We just found a good deal on a beauty and it was love at first sight.

Now we need to raise the dough to take it off the lot before somebody beats us to it. If we all chip in a little bit, we'll have ourselves a bus in no time!

The purchase of a seat comes complete with a personalized inscription on the bus.  If you can't buy a whole seat, we need help buying everything from the wheels to windshield wipers and each comes with a certificate of authenticity.

The bus will be our vehicle for change and will make us more of the statewide organization we want to be. We'll bring back hands-on democracy by filling the bus with volunteer riders and knocking on thousands of doors in important swing districts around the state. And if we get it in time, it will be the party bus at the DNC in Denver next month!

BUY A PIECE OF THE BUS NOW!

Let's make history this year.  Get on the bus.

For more information on the Bus Project model, check out the Bus Federation--a coalition of youth political organizations in 5 western states.