Celebrities Promote Voter Registration

With the presidential election less than a month away, American social media is aflame with a myriad of celebrity and corporate promotional campaigns urging people to get out and vote.

Actors, musicians, influencers, and celebrities such as Leonardo DiCaprio, Beyonce, Billie Eilish, Madonna, David Dobrik, and Kylie and Kendall Jenner are actively encouraging voter education to their millions of followers.DiCaprio, Oscar winning actor and activist, links to his documentary "Whose Vote Counts, Explained" on his Instagram page, which has over 46 million followers. In addition, his highlights section offers highly produced video statements by celebrities, such as former Clippers Coach Doc Rivers and actor Bradley Cooper, explaining the "Do's and Don'ts of Voting” in their states of origin.

Dobrik, a well known vlogger on YouTube, linked up with Tesla Motors and the HeadCount campaign at the end of September to give away five new Teslas. HeadCount is a national nonprofit that works with musicians to support and guide both first-time and returning voters.

Dobrik promised his followers a chance to win a car if they shared his post to their stories, tagged a friend in the comments, and made sure they were registered to vote via HeadCount’s website. According to HeadCount, Dobrik’s efforts secured over 100,000 new registered voters in 24 hours and verified the registration status of 250,000 others.Musicians have also gotten involved in pushing for voter registration. A link in Beyonce’s Instagram bio directs her 155 million followers to her branded “Let Your Voice Be Your Voice” campaign. Recent Grammy winner Billie Eilish also uses her Instagram platform to drive her 67 million followers to a branded portal linked to all the major national election registration campaigns.Sisters and mega-stars Kylie and Kendall Jenner’s Instagram pages both link to the vote.org portal which features an election countdown clock, as well as links to an election calendar showing the early voting start and end dates, courtesy of Vogue Magazine. Between the two sisters, they have an Instagram following of roughly 337 million followers.

On his Instagram, actor Tom Hanks promotes voting with retro-style typewritten inspirational quotes, as well as promoting the Grassroots Fest event that he headlined with Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.These celebrities are joined by numerous other politically-active public figures and organizations encouraging voting in this year’s uniquely polarized presidential election.

Social media’s power and influence has increased exponentially in recent years. With the influx of so many political social media campaigns, 2020 will surely see one of the largest virtual efforts in promoting voter participation to date.

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