Organization Uses Live Music to Register Voters

HeadCount uses music to help register voters for upcoming elections.

By Fiona Curran

HeadCount’s mission is to inform and empower voters where they are and help them register in fun settings: At concerts and music festivals.

HeadCount, founded in February 2004 by Andy Bernstein and Mark Brownstein, has partnered with artists who create all musical genres to help their fans register to vote. Bernstein started the organization by going to concerts of artists he enjoyed, such as Phish, and engaging with fans at those events, hoping to meet people who were interested in learning about the democratic process.

Since then, HeadCount has partnered with well-known artists like Harry Styles, Ariana Grande and Kehlani, as well as mid-level and emerging musicians. The diverse array of artists HeadCount has partnered with contributes to the 1.2 million people they’ve registered in the past 19 years.

HeadCount relies heavily on its paid volunteers to interact with concert-goers and help them with the registration process. Its 60,000 volunteers are dedicated to the democratic process and can be found at events all over the country.

“We really value artists being able to talk about civic engagement and talk about engaging with democracy in their own way. Artists really appreciate that from us,” said Lucille Wenegieme, the co-executive director of HeadCount. “We give them the infrastructure, the people power, and support them in what they’re already doing.”

Although Wenegieme said the group targets audiences of all ages, pop artists garner a lot of attention from younger voters. “Young people are always at the heart of what we do at HeadCount,” Wenegieme said. “We value that everyone comes to civic engagement with their lived experience.”

The goal, she said, is to connect the joy of being at a concert with the joy of civic engagement and voting. “We really empower folks in whatever issues they have, whatever change they’d like to see in the world. If they care about it, they should vote about it,” Wenegieme said.