Musicians help voter registration drive

By Thom Duffy

NEW YORK (Billboard) - Supported by dozens of musical acts, including the Dave Matthews Band, Santana and Maroon 5, the nonpartisan group HeadCount plans to register up to 200,000 new voters via street teams deployed at more than 500 concerts in the coming year.

The organization announced its plans November 6, Election Day, building on its success in signing up 50,000 new voters at concerts in 2004.

HeadCount is believed to be the only national organization planning voter registration at concerts on a large scale in the coming election year. A full list of the artists supporting HeadCount is available at www.HeadCount.org, where volunteers also can sign up to join registration efforts.

HeadCount volunteers are currently registering voters during stops on the fall tour by former Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh.

The group recruits volunteers locally and also sends its volunteers on the road with artists. The latter strategy resulted in some 12,000 new voter registrations during the 2004 tour by the Dave Matthews Band, one of the acts on Democratic-linked group MoveOn.org's Vote for Change trek.

HeadCount plans to register voters via its Web site and to stage a "get out the vote" drive to encourage registered voters to go to the polls next Election Day.

Reuters/Billboard