April 3, 2008 - Amy Faxon, Montana Kaimin

ASUM senator Alex Gosline came up with the idea to add the widget to Cyberbear after he attended a three-day seminar with Campus Progress last summer in Washington, D.C. At the seminar there was a representative from Rock the Vote challenging universities to register the most student voters by the presidential election. Their incentive was to reward the winning university with a large concert, said Gosline.

He decided that somehow incorporating a voter registration on Cyberbear would be the best way to reach everyone and give all students a chance to register.

Gosline pitched his idea to Matt Singer, CEO of Forward Montana, who then discussed with Leftridge how to make it happen. 

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  April 3, 2008 - Sean Breslin, Montana Kaimin

This week, ASUM President Dustin Leftridge approached the University of Montana administration with a proposal to incorporate a Rock the Vote widget, an application to register for voting, into Cyberbear. This brilliant idea resulted from brainstorming between ASUM and Forward Montana CEO Matt Singer.

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  April 29, 2008 - Chelsi Moy, Missoulian

Three Democrats running for the open spot on the Missoula Board of County Commissioners wore homemade crowns, recited a poem and even did a second-long chicken dance at the political forum Monday evening. But in between the funny stunts, these three candidates hit briefly on a lot of serious issues facing Missoula County.

Most of the questions centered on topics that interested students and young professionals, such as affordable housing, low wages and marijuana.

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  March 31, 2008 - Betsy Cohen, Missoulian

If University of Montana students have their way, theirs could be the first college campus in the nation that lets students register to vote at the same time they register for classes.

On Monday, student government leaders will ask UM's top administrators to partner with Rock the Vote, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that engages young people in the political process.

“The whole idea is to make it easy for students to have a centralized place to go to register,” Singer said. “Students go to Cyberbear and Rock the Vote's tool makes it easy.”

Although he's the one who took the idea to ASUM, putting the widget up on Cyberbear originated from Alex Gosline, a UM student Singer met while interviewing students for internships at Forward Montana.

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  March 30, 2007 - Daniel Person Bozeman Daily Chronicle

Forward Montana, a progressive, non-profit organization focused on engaging young Montanans in politics is opening an office here, and that only means one thing: “Pink bunnies are coming to Bozeman.”

That’s according to Jeff Bangs, who will be heading up the Bozeman office. Forward Montana has gained some notoriety with its unique method of getting out the vote: having volunteers dress up in pink bunny suits to beat the pavement for unregistered voters.

On top of that, Forward Montana is also deploying a team of “fake doctors” this year that will hit the streets n clad in full doctor regalia - to hear what people want changed in Americas’ health care system.

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