All right, how's it going Aaron? I'm great. How are you doing Chris? Good man. All right. I'll do I'll do the intro thing
Perfect. This is Chris from GRTV. I'm here at Electric Forest
I'm sitting here with Aaron from headcount.org, right? Yeah, the headcount org
Headcount we are a national non-partisan nonprofit that uses the power of music to get folks involved with our democracy
Our biggest activation which we're doing here this weekend is registering folks to vote
We register people to vote at concerts and festivals across the country last year in 2016
We did over 1,500 events all across the country. Um, I've done dozens and dozens of events with headcount
There's one very special event that I'm privileged enough to get to come do every year and this one here
And that is this one here in electric and electric forest in Roth ream, Michigan. Um, it's special
Right on man. Yeah, what would you say you're based out of again? Um, so we're based out of New York City
But we have teams and we have volunteer team leaders in about 60 cities across the country
So our offices are in New York, but we have a foothold in pretty much every major American city
Right on. All right. So, all right, you came out from New York then good spread
How's it been going so far at this year's Electric Forest from your perspective? I mean, it's awesome
So it's it's it's a weird time to be registering voters
There aren't any major elections happening this year in terms on the national scale
So there are a couple states, New Jersey and Virginia both have governors raises a lot of cities have mayoral elections
Um, and it's and it's getting people to vote in these smaller elections
So in 2016 you didn't need to tell people to vote in 2016 you went on Facebook. You went online
You turned on the TV. You knew an election was happening. You knew voting was important
However for 2017 for the midterms coming in 2018
People might not necessarily know about that people might not be aware. Oh, wow
We do vote on Congress every two years. It's not just every four years
Yeah, so our big campaign is a vote local is to we're calling it hashtag vote local
We we're owning that hashtag on Instagram right now
Go we have a lot of photos from weekend one under hashtag vote local
And they're gonna be a couple more from weekend two and it's just kind of getting people to connect
So in addition to registering voters and we've registered over 300 people at Electric Forest so far
We're getting people to sign up for turbo vote election alerts and this is like this free service
They're not paying us. It's not any partnership type of thing
But it's this awesome tool that reminds you about your local elections
So it will send you an alert will be at County dogcatcher or president to make sure you go out and vote
Like it be a text message
You can choose email or email so you can elect. I like text messages. I read emails, but I miss emails
I don't miss text messages
I guess that might get me in trouble right now if I haven't responded certain people's text messages that are watching
But I but I read my text messages. So it's and then the other big thing is we have
Artists take photos so we have artists take photos holding our clipboards
And it says register to vote now on the clipboard and it's the clipboard our volunteers holding they register voters
And the idea is we have artists take these photos and then on a single day in September national voter registration day
Um, we have all of our art. We have all of our artist partners share that photo on social media to get people to register
I mean we have unique links for each artist so you can track which artists is registering the most voters or which
Which fan base is registering the most and last year during one week in September through this digital campaign
We register 20,000 people to vote. Wow
20,000 people is that so that's across the country then across the country 20,000 across the country
Um, I guess this is my third year at forest. Um, I would say I probably helped register
1200 to 1500 people at the forest alone
So you mean over the last three years. Yes, so you've been coming here three years. Yes
2015 was my first time at the forest. Okay, cool. So so it's I think it's I think it's a powerful thing to have
a movement and those ideas and and the opportunity for somebody to there to take that first small step of
Actually registering and you guys offering that here at Adam music festivals specifically. Oh, why is it that?
That headcount makes that extra push to come out to events like this
So the way I look at it is the way you get people to vote the way you get people to do something
They're not already doing is by framing it in an entirely different way. So we're non-partisan
We're not asking you to register and then vote for somebody. We just want you to vote for whoever you want to vote for
So it's really important. It's not just that it's getting people where they are
Because at the end of the day, everybody here could just go to the DMV and register a vote
But they're not there they're here and people associate good feelings with music and great feelings with music festivals
It's especially electric forest
So it's we want people to associate voting with the same good feeling you get when you're frolicking through the forest and seeing your favorite band
and the and the first the first Rothbury if I remember right was it had a lot of
Activism behind it. There were there were breakout sessions with like lectures or talks and stuff
And it was one of the I remember if I remember right
I think it was one of the first few festivals that really tried to split up even how you throw your trash away
Are you gonna recycle this? Yeah compost and stuff like that. I think
This is a good place for that. It sounds like since the beginning. Oh, yeah
I mean, so since we're getting Rothbury electric forest
Madison house which puts on electric forest are very big supporters of headcount
So this is like sometimes you show up to a festival and it's like you're a nonprofit
You're not making any money. You're not paying any money to the festival
We're just gonna throw you in a deep dark corner and like hope for the best this festival gives us the best like the Primo
Booth space like this is space that if they gave it to a vendor they could make a lot of money
They are leaving money on the table left and right to curate and create this experience that's so much more than just music
And it's you look at the voter registration that we're doing the work that the electricology group
Is doing to green the festival to separate the trash to incentivize cleaning up the breakouts in the forest her
Far the her forest lectures the creating a space for people to discuss and learn and connect because at the end of the
We love we all love music. We're all here because music is amazing, but I think we all crave something like not just the music
But this deeper connection that the music brings and I've been to a lot of festivals
You don't always get that sense of community that you get here that what's known here as far as family and it's just
The festival goes out of their way to create this that that we will connect and we will go beyond just dancing and just doing that
And I mean when so when I talked to people about registering a vote like so the people who register they're mostly 18
1920 one of the things I tell them is now you'll be able to tell your parents about at least one thing you did this weekend
Um, and it's just this way to
And that line works a lot and it really is because at the end of the day you're partying in a music festival
I don't know. I know my parents probably would not want to know what I did when I was 19 at a music festival
But how do I left and I said I went to a lecture about
Feminism in the music world and I registered to vote my parents to be like go to more festivals and like what gets shown in the media is
People partying people having fun, but it's so much more. It's this like we as humans
we crave tribes and we crave connections and we crave communities and
Electric forest offers that community. There are a lot of festivals where you just go in the music ends you leave
That's that's not what we have here. What we have here is our people who come back year after year after year
Yeah
That's awesome. All right, so it's it's it's kind of boots on the ground sort of thing
It's it's going up to people and asking or is it having a boot set up and trying people in so
Essentially if people are sitting if our volunteers are sitting at the booth there something's going wrong
We so it's we do have a big sign a huge sky banner that says register to vote
And that does bring people in but my goal when I'm at a festival is to speak to every single person at that festival and ask them
If they are registered to vote that's a question that
For me at least it's a no-brainer my parents would have asked that literally every day and lead up to an election
But that's not universal and a lot of these people and a lot of the kids I'm registering
It's the first time anyone's ever asked them that they've never thought about it
They've never thought like they see politicians on TV and they see like presidential candidates
And I mean they see somebody who they have no connection to but they see me who likes the same or if not the same similar music to them
and they're like and it's a real person telling them to go do something and
I ask somebody if they say no, I say give me one good reason why you don't want to register to vote
I have about 500 good reasons why you should register to vote um and like a good reason would be
I'm a violent anarchist who's actively working again not necessarily a good reason not necessarily a pro-social reason
But if somebody says I'm a violent anarchist and I don't believe in any states and I want to physically tear everything down
I'll say well. Thank you for having your strong beliefs and go on with your day
Um, but outside of that. It's it's different. It's like pretty it's I can I mean like there's so many things that people don't realize
That this is something that gets voted on and I mean like I hate to like play into a stereotype about a festival
But a lot of people don't realize that the states that have legalized cannabis for recreational use
Uniformly have done via vote not one state legislature has legalized cannabis. Um, it's done like
Exclusively through direct election referendums and that's an issue where coming from a petition thing
So it's so it starts with a petition to get something on the ballot and I know Michigan has had issues
Michigan had people have been trying in the last couple years to get it on the ballot on my notes
Not gonna be in 2017, but I've heard rumors that they're trying to get on the ballot in 2018
So it's the way you sign it to get it on the ballot the way you sign the petition is you have to be a registered voter
Or else your signature gets thrown out, but not just to get it on the ballot
To vote for it on the ballot a lot of people they they like it's it helps people to vote when they can think about something
That's tangential to them that like is their day-to-day life if you're 19
Statistically speaking, you don't own property. You don't have kids in school
You're not dealing with your local government the way an established adult was
So it's finding the strings that that tie you to what our government does and what our rules are
And I mean if you look around the country every year dozens of elections end in a tie
So obviously with the Electoral College your vote doesn't count the way a lot of people wish it did and statistically speaking
The man like I've seen libertarians calculate it the amount of time you spend voting for president
Actually is better spent doing anything else
But from a spiritual level I want people to have that connection to feel connected to the elections
But more so than just the spiritual level the local elections your vote does count your vote really counts
It's the difference between a judge who might put your friend in jail and a judge who might give your friend a warning
Or it might be the difference between a government that prioritizes that prioritizes the arts versus a government that decides
Maybe we don't need this program for children. Maybe we don't need this arts camp
Maybe we don't need music in the classroom, and I mean I'm a music festival
I want there to be as much music in as many classrooms as possible. Like there's some awesome young dudes and young women getting up there
just crushing it and
Like people sometimes you just pick up a guitar
But more often than that it's a teacher who showed this to who inspired you and I mean like I'm not gonna like push any at a specific political agenda
But from a personal standpoint
There are ways where we can get connected to a lot of issues that we don't necessarily think our politics
Because what a lot of people say is man, I came here to get away from politics
And I respect that when I go to music festival
I don't want to get taught like I don't want to have to talk about something that's stressful and in that regard
I will let people go. I'm not gonna force them to have any conversations
But it'd be a lot cooler if they did and like if they if they like thought about how
Every aspect of their forest experience is tied to the people who write the laws that govern our society
So have you ever lost that argument or how do you have you ever won that argument in a difficult way?
So if somebody says no and doesn't want to I mean
The first thing that that I'll say I'm often it seems like how do you so?
I mean so the real way that you switch it is it's you don't make it an argument
You have to flip the script you don't say because if you go head to head it's you've been on Facebook
You've seen people argue on Facebook. Nobody ever is like, oh, you're right. Sorry
So it's you flip the script you you listen to them and you hear why they're upset and why they feel disenfranchised and
separated from the system and then I try and I'll fling it at the wall a whole like laundry list of
Reasons why voting might impact your life and why voting is a good thing and why like you can be connected and why these things do matter
With your life and my hope is these are things that they've never that on somebody might never have heard before
They might not realize that you can literally vote on marijuana legalization
They might not realize that the government decides how fast you can drive on roads
Like somebody was in a meeting and said this road should be a 35 versus a 45
Like if you like driving fast, maybe you might want to run on that platform
Um, and so I I win a lot of arguments
I would like to believe but it's not really a winning an argument because it's a whole it's it's
Oh our a society wins that argument because we have another voter. However, I do oftentimes lose in that sense where they don't register to vote
but those often are my favorite interactions because that person who feels that really strong belief
will be able to feel that strong belief and be headstrong in what they believe in in other ways and
They might not register with me, but the wheels are turning in their head. They're thinking about their government
They're thinking about the society differently, and it might not be today
It might be in 10 years when they own property might be in 20 years when they have kids in school
And they they might not even think back to the conversation they had with me
But I might have like just it changed the entire framework where they view the world
And I hope that that person without even realizing it can go off and make that change that I want them to make and it's because it's
The easiest thing to do is somebody sees the banner shows up and says oh, I've been meaning to do this or my parents have been telling me to
Do this that's really easy that feels great
But like I didn't I didn't make the same impact as if I mean there's an impact they get to vote
But on a personal level that's not the same impact as if I force somebody to view a problem or society
From a different angle from a different prism because right now the media the media
No, it's we have all these different forms of media and people report on politics
Oftentimes especially in the 24-hour cable news world
Especially in certain bloggers in a way that's comfortable and easy for them to write and they fall into the same tropes about left versus right
Democrat versus Republican young versus old like unions versus like state budget or whatever
But there are all these things like we all agree on like so many issues
So it's we're focusing on this tiny sliver of things that we disagree on
But at the end of the day, I mean like there are still Marxists in this world
And it's if you look at what two
People who I would say in a classical liberal sense believe in democracy
We might disagree on specifics of how to fund health care
But we believe that we should vote we believe that we should have the decision about how our rules get made
I mean one of the one other one of the phrases I use a lot is
Democracy it's the greatest trip of all and I just like like let's take a step back throughout the vast majority of humanity
We were governed our laws were made our like day-to-day lives were controlled by the strongest most violent most thuggish
Individuals like the people who essentially would be able to put their boot on your neck and say do this right now
Is our society perfect? No, but we're governed not by the the most violent and the most thuggish
But by the maybe the slickest and the people who are most willing to lie to you and that's far from perfect
That's far from perfection, but it's a whole a whole lot of steps up. It's democracy. It's better than the alternatives
Democracy it's better than the alternatives because definitely man. I feel it sure yeah
That's great. You have a very thorough perspective of all this. I
Really appreciate that. It's it's great to hear what goes on behind
The tent that everybody's seen and really how the wheels of that all work. How did you how did you get into this?
so
So I studied politics in college. I was very much into it
I mean like my whole life. I've been passionate about politics. It's something that's I don't know where it happened
I think I was I think my love of sports probably came slightly before and then I realized the graphics in the political section the
Infographics and the newspaper looks slightly similar to the ones in sports and then from there
I guess I just kind of jumped in and my parents were very into politics and we talked in at the dinner table every night about the
Gongs on the world. So that was my love of politics then um and I worked in politics
But I worked in partisan campaigns and then it was I felt like I was making an impact in the world and at least
My personal views, but I didn't necessarily feel as if it was good and clean
There were aspects where you're getting people to vote for a candidate when you're when you want to vote for a candidate
And there's nothing wrong with campaigning, but it's you're really pushing people and the the the campaign
I was working on you would call people until 9 p.m. On Sunday night asking who they were voting for talking about your candidate and like
That was like really pushing aggressive and I can be pushing aggressive, but that's not my ideal style
Um, so I was working on that then um I wound up on a on a losing campaign and I was out of work for a bit
and my other great love that I've picked up in addition to politics is music and
Specifically the band fish, but there are a lot of other bands that I love too, but fish is a band that I've seen
many many many times
And I have I've like built many a summer around touring and seeing their shows
I've traveled the whole country seeing fish and somebody said there's this organization
There's this guy who runs it our founder huge our co-founders really both huge fish fans and huge political people
And they were like talk to him
He might know about a job somewhere and I'd seen headcount at festivals
I'd registered to vote with headcount before I'd even volunteered or gotten involved
Um, so I go in I have a meeting with one of the co-founders
I had no intentions of doing anything in the nonprofit world at all and by the end of the discussion
I was showing up for free helping out with headcount
Using my experience with politics and the political word cuz world cuz headcount is so tethered to the music world
We are in we're based out of New York and not Washington DC for a reason. That's where the music world is
I'm not where the political world is so I came in with with my background helped out
Um, and then I just worked really hard and it felt very natural to me to combine my passions of music and politics
And I became the luckiest man in the world and I got hired to do something. I love
It's awesome. Yeah, there's a lot of overlap there between those those two worlds that you mentioned
So I think that's that's a really cool fit
So for for headcount
Is there anything about headcount that most people might not know about are there are there any other missions besides just like the
Boots on the ground kind of thing getting people registered
So the biggest public-facing aspect and the people thing the activation people know us for is voter registration
But voter registration ties into our overall goal to be the organizing arm of the live music community
To amplify and elevate other people's voices
So voter registration is the simplest way to amplify and elevate another person's voice
But we have this incredible experience going to festivals now headcounts been around for 13 years
We've done over a thousand festivals. I would guess
If not close to it and we have this knowledge in this experience
So what we also do is run what we call a participation row social action village at a bunch of festivals and a bunch of tours around the country
Where we take the knowledge and experience we have running a booth and we help replicate it for other organizations
That might not table at concerts and festivals and we figure out how to have a clear activation
So it's not just learning about how to feed refugees or learning about how to make a difference
for cancer
For I guess swabbing to get on the list for bone marrow donors for people for people with cancer
It's how do you take the action? How do you make how do you make an easy simple action?
Somebody can take at your booth at a festival and then we incentivize people to take that action when we do it at the festivals by having a
Guitar giveaway raffle. So it's the classic
participation or activation which we're currently doing on dead and company tour which will end tonight actually in Wrigley Field is
You take an action with three nonprofits
You hand us you get stamped you have a card that gets stamped by three different orgs after you take the actions
You put it in the raffle and at the end of the tour one person who took those three actions will win a
Signed Angelico guitar signed by all the members of the band with custom artwork on it
This is something that we also auction to raise money for the other groups we table with to the auction guitar will probably go for upwards of
$50,000 but somebody can get it for free just by taking the actions and
I've been to a lot of festivals seen a lot of nonprofit booths that don't necessarily have much activity that don't have people stopping by
But the participation row model means that people want to stop by and they're excited to learn about what you do
And let's say there are ten groups, and you only need three stamps on your card. You can fill out three cards
All right on man. It seems like it's going well as as as the voting. I mean I suppose just by
Has as the amount of voters gone up over the last few years. What's it? What's different about this time now?
then so
20 so headcount started in the build up to the 2004 election and we registered a
A metric ton of people in 2004 because so many of the the people who had turned 18 before
1996 or 2000 did not vote
Demographically the generation X they were active, but they weren't necessarily voters
I think a lot of it had to do with the two a lot of people viewed the two parties at least in the presidential race as being very similar
Since then there's been a breakaway and nobody says or some people say they're two sides of the same coin
But fewer people say that so we've seen that there's more people voting 04 than 2000 more people voted in 08 then
2004
2012 and 2016 have plateaued and
2008 people were really excited young people were really excited to vote for Obama
But in 2012 and 2016 you haven't necessarily seen that same excitement come the general election
Yet through and like it's not through headcount headcount
We've registered about half a million people since we've started that's a drop in the bucket
But there are all these overarching trends that are getting people to go out and vote and a lot of people talk about Millennials don't vote
Millennials aren't active Millennials are voting at higher rates than any other generation has ever voted at certainly higher than generation X
and close to if not higher than the baby boomers and the baby boomers when they were turning 19
They weren't just voting on whether or not on social issues. They were voting on whether or not they were gonna go to war and like
And like once the draft ended the voting rates dropped
And it's figuring out and I think Millennials are we were dealt this hand where we are keenly aware of
How systems work and how we can't we can do things in a way
Obviously not identical to there being a draft to go to war
But in a way where we have we are forced to be more aware when it comes to the issues that young people care about
Obviously that like to say Millennials monolithically and describe them monolithically is silly
but two issues that I that people care about that young people care about that I don't hear older people talk about are
The environment obviously there are older people talking about the environment, but the environment hits really close to home for young folks and
And college loan debt. I mean like it's I have so many friends who are in such
Astronomical amounts of debt that have not been hit that other generations didn't have this debt
People didn't enter their lives of this debt and people and like young people want to hear politicians talk about their issues
Old old people vote my grandma votes in every election. I love her
But I don't necessarily know if I want every aspect of my life decided by my grandmother
The ARP shadow grandma. I love you, bubby
Um the ARP the ARP does a great job of lobbying and motivating and mobilizing older people to vote
There isn't an American associations of young persons. Um, there isn't an American association of young persons
There isn't something that's fighting for our interests. That's lobbying for our interests
Um, and I don't know if we necessarily need a singular group to lobby for our interests
We're seeing her dozens of groups lobbying for our interests going out there and going out
But um, there isn't anything tying us together and it's as I've said before young people don't own homes
They don't have kids in school. We have different connections to our community than older people do
So how do we get over those?
Stumbling blocks and how do we get people to vote and it's make people think voting's fun
but like not it's like voting's fun like
But yeah, I see what you're doing. It's it's a change of perspective. It's it's putting in a different type of context and
and and and and pulling away or finding a way to unlock any boundaries that usually go up when it comes to a type of political conversation
entirely and like
The most the most relieving feeling well, there are two really relieving feelings
I'll get to the second one in a minute
one of them is when somebody says who do you want me to vote for and I give the privilege of saying whoever you want to vote for
And then oftentimes of both laugh and high five. Um, and then the other truly amazing thing is
Talking to somebody who says no, I can't vote. I'm a felon and I say are you sure?
And they say I don't know and then I we have a sheet where we can pull up
So it's 50 states 50 sets of voting laws 50 sets of felon voting laws
but in about 45 states if you're no longer on probation or parole you can vote in about
10 to 20 states you can vote as long as you're not in jail and in Vermont
You can vote when you're in jail and there's this idea that felons can't vote and at music festivals
I don't know if I we live our daily lives and interact with people with felonies all the time
But you just don't know but a music festival is like across a lot of people
I think they're not able to vote when they really are and just like being able to restore
Somebody's voting rights being able to essentially enfranchise somebody feels awesome. Yeah, that's a powerful thing. Yeah, given them the voice back
So
All right Aaron. Yeah, this has been great so far. Is there anything you want to before we wrap up?
Is there anything you want to encourage?
the viewers and Grand Rapids at GRTG Media Center. So anything coming up that you want to
Just want to let people know about. So what I would say is go to our first off
If you're not registered to vote go to our website headcount.org register to vote sign up to get election alerts
Yeah, like you might as well sign up to volunteer with us. We're working on building out a team in Grand Rapids
We have a team out in Detroit. We have a team out in Chicago and we're doing festivals all over volunteer with us
Come out and do this for yourself. It's probably the most fun way to get a free ticket to this festival
Is the way I would describe it. So I mean come back next year. Say hi. Give me a high five
I plan on coming to this festival for years to come
We're hoping to do a very large activation next year trying to bring some more stuff to this festival
This festival is so incredible the way that they interact with us and interact with all these other groups
Electrocology I mentioned I can't stop mentioning them. It's just I want to not I but head count
We're gonna we're gonna do big things here and we want you to be a part of it head count isn't an individual
It isn't me. It isn't any of anyone in our office
We all could leave and head count would be fine because head count has a hundred deputized volunteers across the country and a
Network of 20,000 volunteers truly grass roots people on the streets and we want to hit 30,000
We want to hit 40,000 sign up at head count org get involved get out
Dance and get down to democracy
Cool. Well, that's great. Thanks a lot Aaron. I appreciate that. I really appreciate what you're doing
I think it's I think it's a powerful thing. It's an important thing. Thank you so much. I think you guys are
Going about in a great way head count org
Their Grand Rapids office opening soon. Yeah, we're in talks
I've been talking to people this weekend about I'm getting a getting a team out in Grand Rapids
I know you guys have some great music venues here
Some that you help help run and I definitely hope to be volunteering voters
At shows in Grand Rapids before the 2018 election. Cool. Sounds good. Thanks so much for being here, man
Thank you, brother. I really appreciate it. This is
Aaron with head count org over at Electric Forest. This is Chris
To your TV channel 25 Grand Rapids. Thanks for tuning in. We'll see you soon
