Hi. Welcome to On Politics, your guide to the day in national politics. I’m Nick Corasaniti, your host on Tuesdays for our coverage of all things media and messaging. |
From text messages to push alerts, Instagram feeds to online dating profiles, it seems like everyone is talking about registering to vote today. And for good reason: It’s National Voter Registration Day. |
Voter registration drives, normally a largely in-person effort, have been pushed online by the pandemic, so campaigns, businesses, nonprofits and celebrities are trying to mobilize voters through pandemic-safe digital tools. |
The major tech companies are using their broad reach to sign up potential voters. The Biden campaign is holding a virtual rally. Other groups are relying on star power. Bob Weir, the guitarist and founding member of the Grateful Dead, has been texting fans this week as part of an effort by HeadCount, an organization that works with musicians to help register people to vote. |
“It occurred to me that the people who have the most at stake in the democratic elections are the people with the most years in front of them, and traditionally these younger folks don’t vote in as great of numbers,” Mr. Weir said. |
The groups have their work cut out for them. According to a report this week by the Brennan Center for Justice, voter registration rates have “plummeted” in 2020, declining by an average of 38 percent compared with 2016 in 17 of the 21 states analyzed. Two key presidential battleground states tell stories of varying concern: In Wisconsin, the registration growth rate is down only 2 percent from four years ago. But in Arizona, it’s down 65 percent. |
One of the chief causes of the lag, advocates say, has been the cloistering of the country amid the coronavirus pandemic. For the most part, there have been no packed rallies for campaign aides to canvass, no bustling city streets for volunteers with clipboards to patrol and no major music festivals or sporting events for civic organizations to leaflet. |
“Voter registration is not down because of lack of interest in the election,” said Wendy Weiser, the director of the Brennan Center’s Democracy Program. “All of our traditional and most common methods of voter registration have been shut down in large part by the coronavirus.” |
The campaigns and outside political groups have focused on digital efforts instead. |
The Biden campaign’s efforts today include a virtual rally with campaign surrogates like Jodie Sweetin of “Fuller House” and the figure skater Michelle Kwan, and a paid advertising push on Facebook. The Trump campaign is using its vast organic digital channels, like its shows on YouTube, and paid media to direct supporters to its voter registration site. |
Acronym, a liberal-leaning nonprofit group, is releasing videos featuring Master Caleb Stewart, a 5-year-old motivational speaker, who directs viewers to a web portal promoting registration. |
When We All Vote, the group founded by Michelle Obama, will stream the former first lady’s conversations with celebrities like Jennifer Lopez, Zendaya, Ayesha Curry and Chris Paul on its Instagram account, with live DJ sets and a “Couch Party” where supporters can join an effort to text more than 500,000 eligible voters. |
Much of corporate America has also joined the digital voter registration push, with the social media platforms at the forefront. |
Facebook announced on Monday that it had already registered 2.5 million voters through their promotions and tools atop Facebook and Instagram feeds. Twitter will send a push alert today to every person with an account in the United States, directing them to a page with voter registration information. |
Snapchat added the ability to register to vote inside its app, and has registered 400,000 people. OkCupid, an online dating site, is allowing people who have registered to vote to add a “Voter 2020” badge, which the company claims increases the chances of getting a message by 85 percent. |
The music industry, which has traditionally been a major voter registration driver through groups like Rock the Vote, has been figuring out its own survival during the pandemic while still keeping a hand in civic action. Rock the Vote has partnered with nonprofits like When We All Vote and companies like Foot Locker to hold National Voter Registration Day drives. |
HeadCount has held digital concerts with groups like the Dave Matthews Band where the only price of admission was checking your voter registration. They have also capitalized on the vibrant online followings of bands like the Grateful Dead, asking fans to text other fans about registering to vote. Occasionally the artist joins in, as Mr. Weir did on Monday night. |
“If you’re a Deadhead, call your friends, Deadheads or not, and make sure that they are registered and make sure that they keep checking to find that they’re still registered,” Mr. Weir said. |
There’s even a push to register to vote at the cash register, both in person and online. In chains like Foot Locker and in trendy, niche outlets like Dover Street Market, stores will post signs with a QR code that, when scanned by a smartphone, directs users to an online registration portal. In case a shopper missed the sign, receipts will show the same QR code. |
That’s especially true during a pandemic that has put up barriers to other means of voter registration, Ms. Weiser said. |
“This could be millions of individuals who would have been registered who are not registering,” she said. “But it’s National Voter Registration Day, and it’s an opportunity to turn that tide.” |
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Ad of the week: Supreme Court, through a health care lens |
 | | Priorities USA ad |
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The message: The ad first tries to undercut the support Mr. Trump has seen in polls regarding his ability to rebuild the economy. It frames the 2017 tax law as one that helped “the rich get richer” and states that his proposed budget would have included cuts to entitlement programs like Medicaid. “But that’s not all,” a deep-voiced narrator intones. |
The ad notes that the Trump administration has asked the Supreme Court to strike down the Affordable Care Act, a reference to a case that the court will hear in November. The ad then repeats a common Democratic attack: that the gutting of the act, whether through the courts or legislation, could end health coverage for millions of Americans with pre-existing conditions. These efforts, the ad says, are happening “in the middle of a pandemic.” |
The takeaway: The 2018 midterm elections were a windfall for Democrats largely over the issues of health care and prescription drug costs. In the midst of the many crises of 2020, from the coronavirus to natural disasters to the sudden vacancy on the Supreme Court, it appears that many Democratic groups will keep their messages focused, at least to some extent, on health care. |
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