They're not just rocking the vote -- they're salseando, perreando and mariachi-ando it.

Latino musicians, actors and celebrities are getting involved in the U.S. presidential campaign to an unprecedented degree this year, from voter-registration campaigns to online music videos for Barack Obama, the candidate drawing the most support from young Latinos.

Such star action could play a significant role in influencing the 18.2 million Hispanics who the Pew Hispanic Center reports are eligible to vote, especially the 7.3 million under 35 and closely tuned to pop music and online culture.

Stars like Juanes, the Colombian rocker, and Los Tigres del Norte, the godfathers of norteño music, are urging fans at their concerts to register to vote, while Dominican merengue legend Juan Luis Guerra and Mexican rockers Mana played a benefit concert in Miami in March for Ya Es Hora (It's About Time), a national campaign to increase citizenship and voter registration among Hispanics.

Actors Rosario Dawson (Men in Black II, 25th Hour) and Wilmer Valderrama (That '70s Show) have made an online telenovela spoof as part of their efforts in spearheading Voto Latino, which seeks to register young Hispanics to vote.

So far, Obama has been the candidate to capture the most attention from Latin stars. There has been no musical or online pop video groundswell for GOP nominee John McCain.

But some political observers caution that just because someone sways to a hip tune online doesn't mean she'll swing the same way in the voting booth.

''These videos are watched for the most part by the people who already support you,'' says Tico Perez, an Orlando political commentator who appears on several national television and radio shows. ``They're great reinforcers but not educators on the issues. The independents are not going to be swayed by videos chanting Obama. They're going to be swayed by the issues.''

Yet there's no denying that this presidential campaign has motivated artists to action.

Producer Andres Levin of the hip Cuban-funk band Yerba Buena and numerous other hot Latin acts pulled together a Latino musical constellation that included pop singers Alejandro Sanz and Paulina Rubio, reggaeton star Don Omar, actors John Leguizamo and George Lopez and In the Heights creator Lin-Manuel Miranda for Podemos Con Obama (We Can With Obama), an online music video that has garnered more than half a million hits since it was posted in early June. Hundreds of thousands more have hit YouTube and other sites to check out other music videos rallying La Raza for the senator from Illinois.

Levin was inspired by Yes, We Can, the star-powered Obama music video by the Black Eyed Peas' will.i.am that became an online phenomenon. ''From seeing the power and effect [the will.i.am] video had, I thought this is something I can do,'' says Levin, who pulled together a group of 24 artists, all of whom appeared for free. ``I'm a producer, an artist, and if there's any way that I can make a change it's gonna be this.''

Many artists were driven to get involved by what they see as the failure of immigration reform and the subsequent backlash of stepped-up border enforcement, workplace raids and deportations.

''The whole caustic nature of the immigration debate and the backlash is hitting home and on a very personal level,'' says Maria Teresa Peterson, executive director of Voto Latino. ``These artists may be successful and achieving their dreams, but they recognize other members of the Latino family who aren't.''

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