Dear Oprah

The goal of this blog is to convince Oprah Winfrey to become America's Ultimate Motivoter.

What is a motivoter? It's a word I made up myself and describes a person who motivates people to vote.

Why do I want Oprah to do this? WATCH how I came up with this idea after a six week journey across America in the ten episodes of the documentary Dear Oprah. With a young filmcrew from Europe we've traveled across the US in a little old motorhome one year before the 2008 presidential elections to search for America's missing voters.

Why did I want to find America's non-voters? When I arrived in America for the first time in 2005 I wanted to know why Bush got reelected. Cause, as so many people, I didn't understand that. I got really fascinated when people told me that almost a hundred million Americans don’t vote. In my part of the world turnout is much higher.

Why does a guy from Europe butt in with American affairs? Well, whether we like it or not, the American president is pretty much the most powerful political leader of the world. So, he (or she) is also a little bit our president...

What did I want to know? These were the questions I had when we started our journey:

- Who are America's non-voters?

- Why don’t they vote?

- Who can make them vote?

- Would US politics change if more people vote?

What's Oprah got to do with all of this? As you will see in the documentary people we filmed during our journey started mentioning Oprah when they talked about their lack of faith in politics. In the final few days of trip I decided that Oprah could help to get more people to vote. Which is something that goes further than endorsing Barack Obama. We decided to end our journey at Oprah's studio, where I wrote a letter to Oprah telling her about our quest. That letter has turned into a movie now.

Please WATCH the episodes of our documentary and READ how you can help me convince Oprah to become America's Ultimate Motivoter.

Finally, a big "thank you" to the many PEOPLE we've met and filmed on our journey across non-voting America. And a special thanks to all the mechanics and tow truck drivers who kept our little old motorhome Lucy going...