HeadCount Announces Campaign To Roll Out ‘HelloVote’ Voter Registration Technology

By Scott Bernstein Sep 22, 2016 1:53 pm PDT

Non-partisan, non-profit organization HeadCount today announced they have partnered with hundreds of musicians in an effort to roll out “HelloVote,” a new technology that allows anyone to register to vote via text message or Facebook Messenger. Members of Wilco, the Grateful Dead, The Indigo Girls and many other acts will each make social media posts this coming Tuesday, September 27 in support of National Voter Registration Day.

The posts from artists will encourage their followers to register to vote by texting “COUNT” to 348-387 or to access the technology at HeadCount.org/RegistertoVote. Look for each social media post to also feature a photo of the artist holding up HeadCount’s “Register to Vote Now” clipboards, such as this photo of Bob Weir:

On Tuesday, HeadCount’s efforts are expected to have a social media reach of more than 200 million followers, who will each be encouraged to use the “VoterRegistrationDay” hashtag. “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.”

The new HelloVote mobile voter registration technology was developed by Fight for the Future, a nonpartisan non-profit organization which aims to protect and expand the Internet’s transformative power. HelloVote is the first tool that allows voters to register over text message or Facebook, in just a minute.

HeadCount was formed in 2004 and has since worked with a bevy of musicians from every corner of the music industry to increase youth participation in democracy. The organization works with over 15,000 volunteers nationwide to have a presence at over 1,000 concerts, festivals and community events each election year. In the past 12 years, HeadCount has helped register nearly 400,000 new voters.

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