Taylor Swift’s call to action brought nearly a half million visitors to vote.gov in 24 hours
Vote.gov reported that Swift's call to action and Kamala Harris endorsement brought in 405,999 visitors to the federal government's voting registration site.
The final tally is in for the surge in new voters Taylor Swift can take credit for.
According to CNN, Vote.gov reported that Swift’s call to action and endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris brought in 405,999 visitors to the federal government’s voting registration site. Visitors do not translate to completed registrations, but the spike in interest is still significant.
That number is based on fans who directly clicked on a link Swift posted to her Instagram stories during the 24 hours it was available. (Stories only last 24 hours unless they are archived as a Story Highlight on the platform.)
A General Services Administration spokesperson told CNN this was a significant surge compared to typical web traffic patterns. Between Sept. 3 and 9, the site received about 30,000 visitors per day.
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Vote.org, a nonpartisan voting advocacy group, also reported that 27,000 people registered as new voters on Wednesday following Swift’s post, and more than 80,000 people verified their registration on the site.
At the MTV Video Music Awards on Wednesday, Swift again encouraged fans to register to vote while accepting her award for video of the year. Vote.gov did not have post-VMA data as of publication time.
It’s not Swift’s first time pulling in a massive number of new voters. Last year, she drove a record-breaking number of 35,000 people to Vote.org to register as new voters. At the time, it marked the site’s most successful Voter Registration Day in three years.
The numbers are a reflection of the pop star’s impact, frequently referred to as the “Taylor Swift effect.” It’s the same boom cities say her Eras Tour can have on commerce and tourism, and loyalty reflected in her appeal to fans when new music or merch drops from the artist. For that reason, an endorsement from the singer had been highly anticipated over the last few months.
Swift has previously encouraged her fans to register to vote, but for years shied away from talking politics. That changed in 2018, when she weighed in on the Tennessee congressional race for Democratic candidates.
Still, with or without her endorsement for a specific candidate this election cycle, devoted Swifties involved in politics were using her fandom to campaign for Harris anyway. When Swift voiced her support for Harris, the campaign quickly jumped on the momentum, with Harris using Swift’s “The Man” as a walk-off song and the campaign selling Swiftie-inspired friendship bracelets.