National Voter Registration Day is a long standing tradition for HeadCount. We have coordinated field and online efforts since 2012 with tremendous support from our community of volunteers, artists, and sponsors in major election years.
2017 however presented a new challenge for HeadCount. This is the first non-federal election year that we have launched a national field campaign for National Voter Registration Day. To say our volunteer team leaders showed up is an understatement – they ROCKED this challenge and continued to promote our partnership with Turbo Vote for local election alert emails.
We registered over 1,000 people to vote, our biggest day of 2017! This is also the first time ever for HeadCount where we registered more voters in the field on National Voter Registration Day than online!
How did we do all of this (besides having the best volunteers in the music world)?We worked five Ben & Jerry’s scoop shops in Philadelphia, Boston, Athens, Chattanooga, and Washington DC with tremendous support from both the local owners and Ben & Jerry’s. We had a massive activation in New York at Brooklyn Boulders Queensbridge where folks got to climb for free if they took action with us – 140 actions were taken in just a few hours. Bobo’s stocked our teams with oat bars for us to hand out at dozens of locations. And we got some assists from our biggest artists partners like Chance. The Rapper, Phish, The National, Dave Matthews Band, Ani Difranco, Nick Offerman, Vans Warped Tour, My Morning Jacket, Death Cab For Cutie, Indigo Girls, Dead & Company and many more (see full list below) who helped our message reach an online audience of 49 million!
As National Voter Registration Day brings together thousands of partners nationwide, we know that working together to promote voter registration day is the most effective way to support National Voter Registration Day. In Nashville, TN, longtime HeadCounters Celia and Yancey Gregory helped launch a coalition effort for #VoteTenn to educate folks on new voter registration laws and bring folks together for an After School Special party at Grimey’s Record Store. In Baltimore, our local team led by Ben Marks, connected with Mile 22 to provide voter registration training to nonpartisan volunteers across a coalition of multiple organizations and to cover 6 different HeadCount events across Baltimore.
Our college and university efforts were especially fruitful with many institutes of higher learning stepping up their support of HeadCount’s efforts. Our outstanding Philadelphia Team Leader Kim Selig registered 148 voters at Temple University in Philadelphia in preparation for Philly’s 2017 local election. In St. Louis, Tom Bergan registered 86 new voters and has 119 Turbo Vote local election alert sign ups. Our Richmond team, Lenny Craig and Kevin O’Neill, worked to cover two campuses of John Tyler Community College to generate 174 actions from students. New HeadCount Team Leader Bri Garcia ROCKED the University of Central Florida to achieve the highest number of stand alone volunteer sign ups. Hey NATION - the YOUTH VOTE IS PAYING ATTENTION!
Our team leaders stepped up across the country on National Voter Registration Day: Alyssa Carey in Upstate NY, Andrea Yeisley in Las Vegas, Ashley Daniel, Taylor Newman, and Rachel Griffin-Jackson in Athens, Nicole and Corey Scheffler in Michigan, David Goldshtein in Cleveland, Donald Tatera in Southern California, Jade Hillary in Charlotte, Jason Fry in DC, Jennifer Hartel in Sacramento, Jes Distad in Atlanta, Margery Ellis in Wilmington, Melanie Marcou in Waltham, Mass, Mercedes Gomez in Miami, Pia Sabina Valeriana in Denver, Shannon McGee in Chattanooga, Stephanie Buckley in Boston, Thais Schaller in NYC (with Katrina Vassalo and Jeff Sohn), Viv Chappell in Madison, and Zachary Feinberg in Philadelphia.
And we got incredible support from the following artists and comedians who shared images on social media for National Voter Registration Day: Adam Ezra, Ani DiFranco, Aloud Online, Bad Cop Bad Cop, Bill Kreutzmann, Blitzen Trapper, Bonnie Raitt, CBDB, Chance the Rapper, Cut Copy, Dave Matthews Band, Dawes, Dead & Company, Death Cab for Cutie, Disco Biscuits, Edison, Greensky Bluegrass, Holly Bowling, The Indigo Girls, Jack Johnson, Jon Favreau, Kevin Lyman, Lee Ranaldo, Local Natives, Lucius, Lukas Nelson, Magic Beans, Mandolin Orange, Marc Brownstein, McLovins, MGMT, Michal Menert, Mickey Hart, Midnight North, Mutlu, My Morning Jacket, Nevada Color, Nick Offerman, NOCONA, Ozomatli, People’s Blues of Richmond, Phish, Pod Save America, Russ Liquid, She & Him, Sister Sparrow & The Dirty Birds, Spoon, Steady Flow, STS9, The Head and The Heart, The Hold Steady, The Infamous Stringdusters, The Longest Year, The Motet, The National, The Werks, The Wrecks, Tom Hamilton’s American Babies, TV On The Radio, Umphrey’s McGee, Valient Thorr, Vans Warped Tour, Warren Haynes, and Widespread Panic.