Free beer if you register to vote
Hey, it sure beats registering dead people, eh??
Here’s a way to get young people registered to vote: Give them free beer.
That’s the plan at today’s East End Festival. Monroe County Democrats have teamed up with High Falls Brewery to offer two free 2-ounce beers to those who register to vote at the festival.
Then the new voter can go into a real voting booth and pick the brew they liked the most. The promotion is called “Register Your Taste.”
The goal is to encourage people older than 21 to register to vote and to simulate the experience of voting. But alcohol treatment counselors fizzled on the idea, saying organizers shouldn’t link drinking with the civic duty of voting.
”I think there are other ways to motivate people to vote other than give them alcohol,” said Elaine Milton, director of the chemical dependency clinic at the Family Service of Rochester Inc.
Well, of course there are, silly. But few things attract more attention than free beer, eh? Besides, a drunken Democrat is still a Democrat.
Upside: Free Beer
Downside: It's Billy Beer!
There's good water for beer in Monroe County, but that brewery wasn't in operation when I lived in Rochester.
Giving drinks to voters is a long and cherished tradition among Northern Democratic Party organizations in the cities. It good to see that the old ways are being revived.
Next there will be the trip to Mt. Hope (a cemetary} to register voters, another traditions.