Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it’s investigating the financials of Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, ‘The A Word’, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.
Sabrina Carpenter helped register more new voters ahead of today’s US presidential election than any other artist.
The “Please Please Please” singer, 25, worked with voter registration organisation HeadCount.
HeadCount told The Independent that Carpenter registered 35,814 voters, with an additional 263,087 voters engaged in other ways, such as checking their registration status or polling location.
She achieved this feat through giveaways, in-person activations and video boards on the US leg of her Short n’ Sweet tour, and mailers.
The organisation also said that Green Day’s Savior Tour broke HeadCount’s all-time record for most voters engaged for a single tour, registering over 7,900 new voters and engaging over 61,000 voters through in-person activations.
This figure nearly doubles the previous record set by Ariana Grande’s 2019 Sweetener World Tour.
In a statement, HeadCount Executive Director Lucille Wenegieme said: “Through our partnerships with over 100 top music artists — like Sabrina Carpenter, Green Day, Ariana Grande, and so many others — HeadCount had a record-breaking year, registering over 450,000 new voters and engaging over 3 million more people to make sure they vote.
“Our model works because musicians and celebrities have a cultural cache and an intimate connection with their fans, especially among young people, whose identity as a fan of a particular artist can be even stronger than other aspects of their identity, including affiliation with a political party or candidate.
“We are so grateful to our artist partners and their teams for inspiring their fans to take control of their future by voting.”
HeadCount works with artists to register voters in-person at their concerts, and also runs sweepstakes and other competitions which encourage fans to check their voter registration in order to win tickets to shows.
The organization said it could track which voter registrations were associated with which act: “HeadCount has unique landing pages and tracking codes for each campaign, so they can get confirmation of registration. Ultimately, they learn about registrations through the public voter file.”
Enjoy unlimited access to 100 million ad-free songs and podcasts with Amazon Music
Sign up now for a 4 month free trial (3 months for non-Prime members)
Enjoy unlimited access to 100 million ad-free songs and podcasts with Amazon Music
Sign up now for a 4 month free trial (3 months for non-Prime members)
The polls are still open in today’s election, and the race between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump is thought to be one of the tightest in history.
Many celebrities have weighed into the debate in recent days, with Harrison Ford, Katy Perry and Beyoncé backing Harris while influential podcaster Joe Rogan came out in support of Trump.
As election workers count the ballots and voting data is released, media outlets will begin to call states in favor of either Kamala Harris or Donald Trump later on this evening. While outlets will likely call the final result in the days or week(s) after November 5, their determination is only ever a projection. The election will be officially certified on January 6 by Congress.
Earlier this year, The Independent’s Annabel Nugent explored how Carpenter made the journey from Disney child actor to Gen Z pop star.
