Peanuts kicked off its partnership with the bi-partisan not-for-profit group Rock the Vote last week at San Diego Comic-Con during the mass hysteria. Thousands visited the Campaign Headquarters and pop-up shop where they cast votes for Snoopy, Charlie Brown, Lucy, Linus, Sally, and Franklin; registered to vote in the real fall election; and of course, picked up some campaign merch. You, too, can go to PeanutsRockstheVote.com to learn more about where the Peanuts candidates stand on the issues you care about and vote yourself. While there, you can check out what celebrities have to say about their favorite Peanuts candidates and make sure to register, if you have not already!

I am pleased with Peanuts partnership with Rock The Vote because it brings some ‘jazz’ to what could be considered ‘lecturing.’ I did two interviews before Comic Con to help with the kickoff. One was with Graeme McMillan of Hollywood Reporter, and the other with Philip Rosenstein, political reporter for Media Post.

In the interview I said that I take voting very seriously, as I believe that democracy cannot survive without citizen participation at all levels of government. Besides, it is really fun to feel a part of the life of the community around you; and registering to vote is the first important step (the next is reading to become informed and then actually making the effort to vote.).

So if you aren’t registered use this online tool: PeanutsRockstheVote.com.

In 2016, Rock The Vote had registered over 410,000 people with their Online Voter Registration (OVR) tool.

Rock The Vote’s OVR tool is the only non-governmental voter registration tool recommended by the Presidential Commission on Election Administration. It is also the only non-governmental voter registration tool featured as a resource in the Election Administration Commission’s 2016 Votor Tool Kit. With all that I will add that we have over 25,000 partners using our OVR tool, with over 600 new ones signing up through May, 2016.

I think our booth looked great this year, and was again very popular.

Comic Con visitors like to shop, it seems, and our featured merchandise was out of stock ‎each day by mid day! You can see why it was irresistible.

Snoopy visited the booth daily for photo ops and hugs. Photograph by Victor Lee.

Two of our Santa Rosa staff participated in one of the panels, titled Snoopy for President! Peanuts and Politics, which played to a full house. Photograph by Victor Lee.

Panelists were (from left to right) Lex Farajado, Senior Editor, Publishing, Creative Associates; Cesar Gallegos, Archivist, Charles M. Schulz Museum; Cartoonist Nick Galifianakis; and Samantha Bradbeer, Hallmark Historian (Hallmark was the original creator of the Snoopy for President campaign in 1968). Photograph by Victor Lee.

Meanwhile, at the Museum, our exhibition, Mr. Schulz goes to Washington, and our mini exhibition, Snoopy Presents: Presidential Pets and Lucky Dogs, continue to please visitors.

Guests can step into a voting booth and vote for their favorite Peanuts character, play a game matching Presidents with the animals with which they shared the White House, and write a Peanuts post car‎d to the next President. We will send the cards in 2017.

–Jean Schulz