New voters could have big impact on election: Vote.org CEO

Tuesday is Voter Registration Day
Taylor Swift's endorsement led to increase in clicks on registration sites
New and young voters will be a big part of the election cycle: Andrea Hailey

Updated: Sep 17, 2024 / 10:23 AM CDT

(NewsNation) — This National Voter Registration Day, many organizations are working on getting people ready for the 2024 election.

A recent social media post by Taylor Swift, where she endorsed Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris, led to a surge of interest in voter registration websites. One of them, Vote.org, saw a 585% increase in sign-ups.

The CEO of Vote.org, Andrea Hailey, said the nonprofit partnered with Swift before.

“I think what is exciting is that every time Taylor shows up, a whole host of organizations all throughout the civic space see spikes,” Hailey said Tuesday on “Morning in America.”

Now, Vote.org is partnering with more than 100 other celebrities, as well as companies like Snapchat and Linktree, to help people register and make their plan to vote in November.

First-time voters especially will be a big part of this election cycle, Hailey said.

“Over 38% of the new registrants we’re seeing are 18-year-olds this year. This surpasses what we saw at this point in 2020,” she said. “I think young voters in general are going to be a part of the story.”