Headcount looked to increase turnout in elections by younger voters and mobilize younger voters who were not already registered to vote to do so. Their civic engagement to mobilize young people in three ways. First, they wanted to have younger voters sign a pledge to vote that would remind them to show up on election day. Second, they wanted to have young voters sign up for an information alert system that would give voters updates on polling stations, how to file an absentee ballot, and important registration and absentee ballot application deadlines. Lastly, Headcount sought to engage with young people under the age of 18 to get them to sign up for an alert that would remind them to register to vote when they turned 18.
Headcount effectively created a campaign that serves the three objectives they set out to achieve. First, they presented a voter registration option embedded in their website in partnership with Rock The Vote that allowed advocates to register or pre-register to vote and pledge to vote on election day. Second, they created a form in partnership with Turbovote that allows advocates to sign up for updates on polling place locations, election day reminders and other useful information. Lastly, Headcount partnered with Phone2Action to create a signup campaign for their #thankunextgen initiative that allows advocates under the age of 18 to sign up to get a reminder to register to vote when they turn 18 and sends them updates on registration deadlines and other important voter information. This campaign was effective not only because it was embedded in their website, but they utilized their partnership with pop star Ariana Grande to attract younger people to take action. Photos of Ariana Grande and her name were displayed clearly on the action items to draw younger fans of the pop star to take action since it is a campaign associated with her.
This campaign was very effective in achieving its goal of reaching out to advocates and getting them to sign up. While we don’t have numbers shared from Turbovote and RocktheVote on their parts of the campaign, we can confirm that the #thankunextgen signup campaign gathered a staggering 5,502 advocates. That is 5,502 young people under the age of 18 promising to register and vote when they turn 18. Having such high numbers of individuals sign up for the campaign can be seen as a success for a campaign of which the main goal was to connect to as many young people as possible. It is clear that Headcount and #thankunextgen was extremely successful at luring young people in by associating with popular music icon Ariana Grande and then getting them to commit to registering to vote and showing up at the polls.