Taylor Swift told fans to register to vote -- then Vote.org got 35K new voter registrations
You might say that pop superstar Taylor Swift is now in her "civics era" as she urges her fervent fans to "speak now" because democracy never goes "out of style."
Vote.org, a nonprofit and nonpartisan get-out-the-vote platform, said 35,252 people registered to vote using its platform on Tuesday, National Voter Registration Day -- and the group attributed the spike in visitors to its site to Swift's Instagram story post calling on fans to register to vote.
In other words, look what she made them do -- by reminding her supporters there is a "blank space" in their voter registration.
"Vote.org saw record-breaking traffic to our site this week as we celebrated National Voter Registration Day, a highly encouraging sign of voter enthusiasm especially among newly eligible voters," Vote.org CEO Andrea Hailey said in a news release.
"During the day on Tuesday we saw a 1,226% jump in participation the hour after Taylor Swift posted. Our site was averaging 13,000 users every 30 minutes -- a number that Taylor Swift would be proud of," Hailey said.
Thirteen, as the singer's "Swiftie" superfans know, is Swift's lucky number.
In Swift's Instagram story on Tuesday, the singer-songwriter wrote, "I've been so lucky to see so many of you guys at my US shows recently. I've heard you raise your voices, and I know how powerful they are. Make sure you're ready to use them in our elections this year!"
Swift linked to Vote.org's platform in that post. The organization said that Swift has partnered with them for the past few years.
Vote.org says that this was their largest National Voter Registration Day since 2020, and that on Tuesday it saw a 115% increase in 18-year-olds who registered compared to last year's National Voter Registration Day. Overall, 157,041 eligible voters came to the site on Sept. 19.
The group said that it is working to get more young voters to register, including through new initiatives on college campuses. Researchers at Tufts University found that the number of registered voters ages 18-24 in 41 states had increased by 6% by November 2022 compared to November 2018.
Politics is a cause Swift knows "all too well." Swift has been more candid about her political leanings over the past few years, endorsing the Biden-Harris campaign in an October 2020 interview with "V Magazine."
"I will proudly vote for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in this year's presidential election. Under their leadership, I believe America has a chance to start the healing process it so desperately needs," Swift said at the time.
She has also lent her song, "Only the Young," to a political ad for Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., and criticized Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., in 2018 when she endorsed Blackburn's Democratic opponent and former Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen.
ABC News' Andrea Dresdale and Julia Cherner contributed to this report.
