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Taylor Swift drives 400,000 people to voter registration site in less than 24 hours

The government’s vote.gov information site saw a huge spike in traffic after pop superstar endorsed Kamala Harris

Kevin E G Perry
Los Angeles
Friday 13 September 2024 00:26 BST
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Taylor Swift endorses Kamala Harris following debate

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Taylor Swift’s Instagram call for voter registration drove more than 400,000 visitors to the vote.gov website in under 24 hours.

The pop superstar, 34, posted a custom URL to her Instagram Stories shortly after endorsing Kamala Harris in November’s upcoming presidential election.

In a statement to Variety the General Services Administration, which runs the vote.gov site, said they received 405,999 visitors referred directly from the link the singer posted.

In the week prior, the site had averaged around 30,000 visitors per day.

It is not known how many of those visitors subsequently registered to vote. However, the General Services Administration estimates there were more than 27,000 new registrations through the website on September 11, as well as more than 80,000 people who verified their registration status.

Users cannot register at vote.gov, but instead, residents are redirected to their state election websites where they must register directly with their state.

Taylor Swift officially backed Kamala Harris after Tuesday’s debate.
Taylor Swift officially backed Kamala Harris after Tuesday’s debate. (Getty Images for MTV)

In her endorsement of Harris, Swift said the vice president is a “steady-handed, gifted leader.”

In a lengthy message posted shortly after the presidential debate between Harris and Trump, Swift said: “If you haven’t already, now is a great time to do your research on the issues at hand and the stances these candidates take on the topics that matter to you the most.

Sharing a picture of herself holding her cat Benjamin Button, from last year’s Time magazine shoot when the publication named her their person of the year, she wrote: “Like many of you, I watched the debate tonight.

“As a voter, I make sure to watch and read everything I can about their proposed policies and plans for this country.”

Mentioning AI-generated images reportedly shared by Mr Trump on his Truth Social platform which had previously suggested she was endorsing him for president, the singer spoke about the “dangers of spreading misinformation”.

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She wrote: “Recently I was made aware that AI of ‘me’ falsely endorsing Donald Trump’s presidential run was posted to his site.

“It really conjured up my fears around AI and the dangers of spreading misinformation.

“It brought me to the conclusion that I need to be very transparent about my actual plans for this election as a voter. The simplest way to combat misinformation is with the truth”.

She added: “I will be casting my vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in the 2024 presidential election.”

Swift also used her acceptance speech for Video of the Year at the MTV Video Music Awards to urge viewers to register to vote.

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