Today, the non-partisan voter registration organization HeadCount announced that hundreds of musicians will help roll out "HelloVote," a new technology that allows anyone to register to vote via text message or Facebook Messenger.
More than 200 musicians including Wilco, Panic! At the Disco, Jack Johnson, Killer Mike, Ani DiFranco, Lil Dicky, The Indigo Girls, Michael Franti and members of The Grateful Dead will make social media posts next Tuesday, September 27th in support of National Voter Registration Day. Artist posts will direct their followers to register to vote by texting "COUNT" to 348-387 or to access the technology at HeadCount.org/RegistertoVote. Each social media post will also feature a photo of the artist holding up HeadCount's "Register to Vote Now" clipboards. The campaign - a celebration of the annual "National Voter Registration Day" - will have a social media reach of more than 200 million followers, and 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."HeadCount unleashes the power of musicians and fans to make a difference. Founded by a group of musicians in 2004, including Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead and Marc Brownstein of the Disco Biscuits, the non-partisan organization has registered over 360,000 voters, and have helped motivate millions of millennials to be informed, vocal citizens. HeadCount uses the power of musicians, the passion of fans and the hard work of volunteers to promote participation in democracy.
HelloVote is the first chatbot-based tool that allows voters to register over text message or Facebook Messenger in under one minute. HelloVote dramatically improves the user experience of civic participation for millions of mobile-first Americans in collaboration with partners nationwide. Co-created by Tiffiniy Cheng, Jeff Lyon, Josh Levinger, Holmes Wilson, and Elana Berkowitz, HelloVote is a non-partisan 501c3 project of Fight for the Future and the Fight for the Future Education Fund.Videos