No Vote Left Behind is a political organization made up of non-political people.

In fact, up until this year only two of our core organizers had ever taken part in any kind of political activity aside from voting.

So what motivated a group of people whose main concerns had previously been what band was playing and where, to suddenly form a political action committee? The same things that a growing percentage of people in this country also find disturbing: Wars based on fabricated information, rapidly deteriorating relationships with even our friendliest allies, a struggling economy that the president hopes to solve simply by lowering taxes for the wealthy, and a general feeling that the Bush administration is not accurately or even ethically representing the people of this country.

The founders of No Vote Left Behind, Natasha George and Chris Olson, were so disturbed by the direction the country was headed, they decided they could no longer just sit back and watch. After much discussion and research, they concluded that raising money to help the Democratic National Committee increase voter turn out in key swing states could play an integral role in the next election. Since they were both well-connected in Seattle’s thriving music scene, their method for fundraising seemed obvious—put on shows that people would be excited to see anyway.

As word spread about No Vote Left Behind, an impressive list of volunteers began offering their services and within a few months the current No Vote Left Behind committee was born.

Unlike organizations like Rock the Vote and Punkvoter, we set up No Vote Left Behind as a hard money PAC that reports to the Federal Election Commission. This means we must adhere to stricter rules and contribution limits. But it allows us to voice very specific opinions about who we're backing, which seemed like the most direct approach to achieving our goal: removing George W. Bush from office.

No Vote Left Behind is:

• Natasha George — historian, catalyst, bartender/fixture at the Crocodile Cafe
• Chris Olson — DJ, not-for-profit project manager
• Mark Arm — musician (Mudhoney, DTK/MC5, Monkey Wrench, the Thrown Ups), NVLB spokesmodel
• Barbara Mitchell — label owner, band manager, publicist, resident mixologist
• Jake London — musician, lawyer, music booker, barbeque enthusiast
• Steve Mack — streaming media guru, overworked businessman, frustrated citizen
• Jacquelyn Miller — professor, Seattle U
• Kenn Herman — politico hack, head honcho developer, national database administrator on the Howard Dean campaign
• Denise Maupin — Goddess of numbers and spreadsheets, musician in XXXAudio
• Jason Dennie — web implementer, tall man about town
• Christi Williford — designer extraordinaire
• Christine "the dom" Scharrer — architect, volunteer coordinatrix, doxie lover
• Erin Weible — museologist, volunteer coordinatrix, dog trainer
• Kevin Jones — wordsmith with infinite patience