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HeadCount Aims For 200,000 New Voters
11/07/2007
From: Hello Wendy PR
HeadCount, the volunteer-run voter registration organization that registered nearly
50,000 voters in 2004 through alliances with Dave Matthews Band and other artists, has
announced an ambitious plan to stage voter registration drives at more than 500 concerts
over the next year, with a goal of registering 200,000 new voters.
HeadCount will be the only national organization to stage voter registration at concerts on
a large scale in 2008, employing registration methods it has tested and perfected over the
last three years.
Virginia McEnerney, the former Vice President of Corporate Relations at Time Warner has
been named the first full-time executive director of the non-profit organization, which to
this point had been run entirely by volunteers. Dave Matthews Band, the Allman Brothers
Band and members of Phish and the Grateful Dead continue to be aligned with HeadCount,
along with new artists such as O.A.R.
"What HeadCount has accomplished to this point is nothing short of remarkable," said
McEnerney, who spent 10 years with Time Warner before leaving the company in 2005 to
become an independent consultant to non-profit organizations. "I believe we are poised to
step from being an entirely grassroots operation, to becoming a nationwide force and
spreading participation in democracy to an even broader audience."
HeadCount is calling for volunteers to join the street teams that register voters at
concerts. Volunteers can sign up at HeadCount.org. For the first time, some will be eligible for
modest, performance-based stipends, marking another important step in HeadCount's
evolution.
The volunteer network will form street teams in approximately 50 US cities, each working
with affiliated bands and promoters to set up voter registration tables at concerts. The
organization will also send volunteers on the road with major artists, an approach that
helped register over 12,000 new voters on the Dave Matthews Band tour in 2004 - an
all-time record for a single concert tour.
In addition, HeadCount has invested in state-of-the-art voter registration software and
expects to register tens of thousands of voters through HeadCount.org. This activity will
be buttressed by extensive "get-out-the-vote" activity, working directly with artists to
encourage people of all ages to head to the polls in 2008.
"If we don't protect democracy today, there won't be a democracy to protect in a few
years," said former Grateful Dead guitarist Bob Weir, a member of HeadCount's board of
directors. "I think for the younger folks this is particularly important, because the
decisions we make will largely affect the rest of their lives."
HeadCount not only gives people the opportunity to register to vote, it offers thousands of
young music fans a taste of activism. Volunteers receive intensive training in voter
registration guidelines and practices, and get hands-on experience on community
organizing.
Marc Brownstein, bass player for the popular electronic rock band The Disco Biscuits,
continues to serve as HeadCount's co-chair. "This was something we started as a dream,
just a crazy idea that we believed we could pull off," said Brownstein, who founded the
organization along with longtime friend Andy Bernstein, author of a series of books about
the group Phish. "Now it's almost four years later, and we are in it for the long-term. We
hope HeadCount leaves a permanent imprint on the live music community, forever getting
fans more engaged in the political system and democracy itself."
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