If you’re looking for one rockin’ good reason to vote during this weekend’s byelection, YouTube may have the answer.

A 26-year-old candidate who has thrown himself in the mix has made it his mission to prove new media may, in fact, usurp the power of traditional forms of media—newspapers, Internet sites, radio and television—to generate votes, composing a new YouTube video to sell you on the idea over the weekend.

Named for boxer Rocky Marciano, with whom he shares a birthday, and positioning himself as one to fight for your vote come Saturday, Rocky Mix’s new media campaign appears to be pushing him to the front of the 15-candidate line up—at least on the Internet.

No one can say whether this will translate into ballot box votes, but noticeably more voters turned out for the first of the advanced polls last Wednesday, and Mix is laying claim to some of the increased participation by voters.

“When I went in there (to the advanced poll), there was about 16, 17 people,” Mix said. “And there was about 150 people who called to say they voted and they were telling me their dad was going with six other people later and I had another lady tell me she would be taking four of her neighbours.”

All tolled, Mix figures it’s possible up to 300 of the 872 advanced poll votes could go his way—and that’s nothing to scoff at in a 15-candidate lineup.

The poll, held last Wednesday, was so busy at times the election staff even had people waiting to vote—an absolute rarity in a civic election.

“It’s very encouraging,” said Karen Needham, City of Kelowna elections officer, noting the city is hoping it’s a good sign for the second advanced poll today and Saturday’s election day.

Building his campaign off YouTube, Facebook and by chain-texting the contact lists of friends and friends of friends, Mix spent the weekend mounting a second offensive with his new YouTube video, which he’s hoping will see better traction than the candidate video now showing on Castanet.

He was not happy with his own performance on Castanet, he said, nor with the way it was edited by the Internet news service, so he decided to fight fire with fire.

“I was just going to push it off because I’m not one to give negative media any coverage. I don’t want to get involved in anything like that.

“But at the end of the day, I had somebody e-mail me that he didn’t know about the confidence level I showed in that video.

“So I said, ‘I can do something about that. Things can be edited and I can edit video too.’”

Whether it works remains to be seen, but if Facebook campaign sites prove anything, then Mix is likely in the running.

He is neck-and-neck with 19-year-old Kevin Craig, who narrowly missed a seat during the election last November, for Facebook friends.

Craig is beating him on that front, and tops every other candidate for his Twitter following—a tool Craig said he did not take full advantage of in the last election.

Asked if he’s concerned about Mix’s apparent success and the potential for vote splitting, however, Craig brushed it off.

Traditional campaign tools like door knocking, rallying the support of residents’ associations and a strong political support base are still equally important in his estimation.

“You have to run an all-round campaign. That’s what I’ve been doing. I’ve combined a grassroots campaign with door knocking and getting out to community events,” he said.

The race has certainly caught attention in the world of social media blogs where Scott Davis, of Culturactive, actually took the time to rank candidates on their networking savvy, pointing out it worked for Barack Obama and should see more traction in Kelowna.

Including the candidate’s Alexa ranking, a tool used to independently track website traffic, Davis’ blog places Craig in the lead for media advantage, whether he’s concentrating on social marketing or not.

The blog can be found at www.culturactive.com and ranks the candidates for their website traffic, Facebook friends and Twitter followers.

Not surprisingly Clayton Kessler’s website handily outstrips every other candidate for traffic as he’s effectively running a blog of what’s happening in the byelection, tracking every candidate, rather than simply promoting himself.

On his own website he’s posted a poll, which is attracting a lot of attention, although Mix is currently in the lead on his poll, making it difficult to tell who the site is promoting—a point Davis also makes in his article.

Meanwhile, candidate Mary-Ann Graham is pushing her own unique campaign message, sending out e-mails requesting traditional media outlets simply run articles to let the public know they can vote.

She believes many voters are not aware the byelection is underway and many others who may qualify to vote, don’t know the election is open to them.

In an interview earlier during the campaign Graham told the Capital News she believes many people are under the impression you need to own property to vote and she’s out to eradicate misinformation.

An all candidates forum for all byelection candidates running tonight will give people the only in-person chance they have to hear the candidates make their case.

The forum will be held in the Branch 17 Seniors Centre on the corner of Richter Street and Fuller Avenue, at 7:30 p.m.

Today’s advanced poll (Wednesday) runs from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. at Parkinson Recreation Centre. General voting day is this Saturday, Nov. 28, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. at 10 polling stations throughout the city.

Anyone who has lived in Kelowna for at least 30 days, has lived in B.C. for six months, is 18 years old and a Canadian citizen qualifies.

Those who own property in the area and do not qualify as a resident voter may also qualify. Check the City of Kelowna’s website, www.kelowna.ca, under the byelection button for details.

jsmith@kelownacapnews.com