As American voters’ rights have increasingly come under attack from Republican politicians and interest groups, voter-registration non-profit HeadCount has announced “Save the Vote!,” an interactive campaign to encourage young Americans and cultural leaders to speak out for voting rights.
The campaign hitson the same day that a divided Supreme Court ruled to uphold restrictive voting laws in Arizona. That came just days after theFor The People Act— a Federal bill to protect voting rights — was stalled by a filibuster in the U.S. Senate. Meanwhile, 389 restrictive bills in 48 states have been introduced by state lawmakers tolimit voting rights.Save the Vote!keys in on those state-by-state battles.
Lil Dicky,Big Freedia,Dead and Company,Amy Lee of Evanescence,Ministry,Michael Franti,Kam Franklin of The Suffers,Shah, and Dozens of musicians and cultural leaders will participate, with many directly calling their own elected officials and capturing those moments on social media videos. are among the many HeadCount supporters who are using their platforms toSave the Vote!
The announcement comes on July 1, the 50th anniversary of the date that 18 to 20-year-olds were given the right to vote via the 26th Amendment.
View the campaign landing page atHeadCount.org/SaveTheVote
“50 years ago, our country gave electoral power to the youth vote at a time when we knew their voices could no longer be silenced,” saidAndy Bernstein, HeadCount’s executive director, “and today, we are bringing young Americans and their favorite musicians into the national conversation about voting rights.”
AtHeadCount.org/SaveTheVote, users will find a listing of what’s happening in all 50 states. To access that information, “they first play a little guessing game,” the announcement says, by predicting where their state ranks in how easy it is to vote. Then — after selecting their state on an interactive map — they’ll learn about pending or recently passed voting legislation in their home state. Visitors can also learn about how voting rights impact specific nonpartisan issues such asCriminal Justice,Racism and Discrimination,Jobs and the Economy,andLGBTQ+ rights.
Save the Vote!marks an extension of HeadCount’s work beyond voter registration and Get Out the Vote activities.Save the Vote!will also be integrated into HeadCount’s hallmark field program, as volunteers speak with concert and festival-goers at events like Peach Fest, Newport Folk Festival, Bonnaroo, Bass Canyon, Louder than Life, Ohana Festival, Lost Lands Festival, and tours by Dead & Company and Dave Matthews Band.
Since 2004 HeadCount has registered over 1 million voters and worked with a long list of musicians and partners including Ariana Grande, Billie Eilish, Camila Cabello, Dave Matthews Band, Jay-Z, Beyoncé, March for Our Lives, RuPaul’s DragCon, MTV, and Dead & Company.
