Where is the best place to reach Gen Z voters? The non-partisan organization Headcount is finding out by attending concerts, festivals and sporting events.
Headcount hosted a voter registration drive at Washington, D.C.’s concert and sports venue, the Capital One Arena, to get more young people to the polls ahead of the midterm elections just three weeks away.
Headcount began registering voters at concerts, said Ann Keasling, a sports field organizer. The team has toured with major artists such as Lizzo, Jack Harlow, and Ariana Grande. IUrt has also partnered with sporting events.
“Right now, we’re really focused on getting kind of the youth, Gen z vote out,” she said.
Headcount also reaches out to other potential voters regardless of age or political ideology, Keasling added. “We kinda try and reach different demographics, so we go to a lot of like Dead and Co. concerts where you have less of that kind of en z crowd.”
So far in 2022, Headcount has registered 150,000 voters, the most for a midterm year.
“Being on the ground talking to people, we find that a lot of people are really frustrated with a lot of federal policies,” she said. “They’re frustrated with the status quo and really don’t see themselves reflected in government who are really motivated to go out there to see their values reflected.”
