Taylor Swift managed to drive record-breaking numbers to voter registration website Vote.org after urging her 232 million followers on Instagram to take action.
On Tuesday (19 September), hours after the pop star, 32, called on her US fanbase to register to vote in honour of National Voter Registration Day, Vote.org’s communication director, Nick Morrow, announced that “our site was averaging 13,000 users every 30 minutes”.
“Fun fact: after @taylorswift13 posted on Instagram today directing her followers to register to vote on @votedotorg, our site was averaging 13,0000 users every 30 minutes,” Morrow wrote on X/Twitter.
“13! Let’s just say her reputation for being a mastermind is very well-earned.”
Earlier that day, the “Anti-Hero” singer had posted to her Story, asking followers: “Are you registered to vote yet?
Voter turnout has always sucked, and especially among the youth vote. I think it’s sad to throw stones at any effort that moves the needle in that regard.
Registration isn’t the same as voting, sure, but there is a correlation between degrees of registration numbers and turnout. The below article focuses primarily on differences from automatic registrations, but covers the details pretty well I think.
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/what-happened-when-2-2-million-people-were-automatically-registered-to-vote/