Six text messages. Twenty emails from myriad companies. Notices from Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat.
These are just some of the many ways in which I’ve been inundated in the past month with the timeliest question: Have you registered to vote yet?
Although there are many ways in which I am not a perfect citizen, I have been registered to vote since I was 18.
Ever since I was a kid, I eagerly anticipated filling out my own ballot the way many other kids looked forward to being old enough to get a tattoo.
While I have never needed reminding to register, I can recall seeing some routine notices in years past. An occasional flier on my front door. A lone PSA on the radio. A Facebook post from one of my friends.
But this year, voter registration took over the internet and seemed to make the process easier than ever.
Was I imagining it? I did some research to find out.
According to CNN, things truly are different this year. Not only could you register to vote in all of the usual ways, but you could also register without navigating far off your daily routine. Some of the many methods to register this year included through Facebook, Google, and Twitter. In order to rally excitement for National Voter Registration Day (back on September 25), social media platforms offered reminders and stories on their home pages, and they were hard to ignore.
In addition to social media reminders, brands and celebrities also promoted registration this election year. Levi’s, HBO, Lyft, and many other companies jumped on the bandwagon to promote election participation with campaigns and hashtags. A coalition of companies called “Time to Vote” is one of the major groups promoting voter turnout this election year. These companies are increasing the voting hype in a variety of ways. Walmart linked voter information on its website and Lyft is offering discounted rides to those who use the service to get a ride to the polls on November 6.
What is the most surprising method you could have used to register? Fans attending Beyonce’s most recent On The Run II concert tour could also register to vote while enjoying the show.
This interweaving of politics and culture seems both natural and groundbreaking. Political discussions might not be ideal for business, but promoting voter education seems to be on trend.
The voter registration frenzy this year was so strong, I even double-checked my voter registration status (following a link I saw on Instagram) just in case I was missing something!
According to CNN, this registration rally succeeded. National Voter Registration Day broke its previous record of 771,321 new voters by registering 800,000 new voters for 2018.
