In celebration of the annual National Voter Registration Day, over 200 musicians will participate in a campaign on Tuesday that will help to roll out “HelloVote,” which is a groundbreaking new technology used by HeadCount that allows you to register to vote via text message or Facebook Messenger.
“We’ve known for many years that music is the best way to reach Millennials and unregistered voters,” said Andy Bernstein, HeadCount’s executive director. “We also know that text message is how young people prefer to communicate, so this brings all of that together.”
Musicians such as Wilco, Panic! At the Disco, Jack Johnson, members of the Grateful Dead, Michael Franti, and many more, will make posts on their social media profiles that includes an image of them holding the “Register to Vote” clipboard, and a caption directing their followers to register to vote by texting “COUNT” to 348-387 or by going to HeadCount.org/RegistertoVote.
According to a press release, HelloVote was developed by Fight for the Future, which is “a nonpartisan, non-profit organization dedicated to protecting and expanding the internet’s transformative power. It is the first tool that allows voters to register over text message or Facebook, in just a minute. It is also integrated with 20 different states’ online voter registration platform, making it the only technology that allows for true online voter registration in a variety of states.”
This is a monumental step to getting more Americans registered and ready for the presidential election this November. An estimated 96% of Americans own a cell phone, which means that almost every American can be registered to vote by the convenience of their phone. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, reports of the 2012 election showed that 12.7 million of 18-24 year olds were not registered to vote, and only 46% of those registered actually cast ballots.
Headcount has been working hard to change that. Since its inception in 2004, the organization has amassed over 15,000 volunteers nationwide to work at local concerts, events, etc., to promote voter registration. Headcount has now registered nearly 400,000 new voters.
Tuesday’s campaign will have a social media reach of more than 200 million followers; you can find it under the VoterRegistrationDay hashtag. For additional information visit, www.headcount.org.
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