(This story was updated because an earlier version included an inaccuracy.)
Voter registration is breaking records as Election Day approaches, particularly among young people, many of whom are first-time voters.
On Tuesday’s National Voter Registration Day more than 150,000 people registered through Vote.org, the most the organization has ever seen on that day. The organization registered 279,400 voters in all of last year.
Last week, 337,826 people visited a link posted on Instagram by pop star Taylor Swift that directed them to their state’s voter registration site.
Although Swift noted that she would be voting for the Democratic candidate, Vice President Kamala Harris, people don’t have to declare a party affiliation when they register and neither vote.org nor Swift tracked registrations by party. Vote.org has previously told USA TODAY that about 80% of people they register turn out in the next election.
Sign-up for Your Vote: Text with the USA TODAY elections team.
A huge percentage of the newly registered voters are young people, many voting for the first time.
According to Vote.org, voters under 35 made up 81% of Tuesday’s registrations, with the biggest spike among 18-year-olds. On this year’s National Voter Registration Day, 11% of those registered were 18, which is 53% higher than on the same day four years ago.
“We’re really seeing a surge in 18-year-olds registering to vote.” Vote.org CEO Andrea Hailey said. “We know that we can onboard the next generation of voters into our democracy if we can get people to register and get out to these elections.”
Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat, is also trying to make it easier for people to register to vote.
After years of lobbying, she announced Friday that those filing out applications for health insurance through the HealthCare.Gov website would be offered an option to receive information on voter registration.
“The health of our democracy depends on Americans registering and exercising their right to vote,” Warren said in a statement. Many people looking for coverage through the website have low-wage jobs that don’t offer insurance or are just coming off of their parents’ insurance at age 26.
“I’ve pushed for the government to use every tool to make it easier to register, particularly for younger and lower-income individuals, and this update is an important action by the Biden-Harris administration to protect the right to vote for all Americans,” Warren said.
Others are finding creative ways to register young voters, including Ezra Gershanok, whose New York City apartment subletting company, Ohana, is reaching younger people in a way that catches their attention: funny memes.
He and others at the company have been passing out flyers with election-related jokes and a QR code that leads to a voter registration site.
His hope, he said, is to get young people new to the region ‒ precisely his company’s demographic ‒ to register to vote. “This past month, our website traffic hit 40,000 people per month, and a lot of them are these young people that are fresh out of college taking their first job in New York, or in this demographic of folks that don’t often register to vote,” he said. “So we were like, ‘could we make an impact in this election by just getting our own users to register to vote?'”
They hit 445 registrations this week and hope to register 10,000 young people by election day.
“I don’t think this would resonate with people in their 40s or 50s, but it definitely resonates with young people,” Gershanok said.
To register to vote, go to Vote.gov, vote.org, or your state or local election offices.
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