PipemanRadio Interviews HEADCOUNT at Shaky Knees 2023

0:04 Hey, you love them too? Yes, that's sure. From Wow Wake Up of America. It's time for the Adventures of Pipeman on W four cy dot com. List Palm Beach is number one internet radio station. Here's your host, the White Man. It is Pipe Man here on the Adventures Pipeman W four c Y Radio here at Shaky Kneeds and I'm here with Lucy Beach. I'm the Partnerships and Events manager here at Headcount. Nice. And so for the listeners out there that may not know what Headcount is, can you tell them a little bit about Headcount then why you're here at Shaky Kneeds.

0:50 Yeah. Headcount is a nonprofit, non partisan voter registration organization. UM. We use the power of live music to get folks registered to vote. We go to festivals and concerts and community events all over the US and you know, bring our voter registration tools. People can shut their polling places and uh, you know, update their address and yeah, we just want to get people out there to vote. This is our first time at Shaking Needs and we're really excited to be here. Nice. You know, it's funny because I do we talked before I festivals all across the country too, and it's my first time at shaking needs too, so it's cool. I've seen you at other festivals, and can you tell us why people should register with you guys to vote opposed to men just thinking well, I could just do it myself. Yeah, you know, we try to make it easy for people.

1:42 You know, when people are at music festivals or concerts, usually they're in a good mood, you know, and we just make it easy. It's a lot easier than you know, putting it on your to do list to go to the DMV and register to vote. We have all the tools here. We do it quickly and easily. And yeah, we're completely nonpartisans, so we don't care who you vote for. We don't want to talk politics. We just want to get you registered to vote and participating in democracy. I'm glad you brought that up because I've seen you at other festivals and I see that you're just getting people to vote, and I'm sure people would be thinking, oh, well, they must be pushing some political agenda, and no, it's not about that's the only agenda is to make sure people are registered to vote and that it takes all the hassle away from them.

2:30 Yeah, it takes away the hassle completely. You know, we review all the registration forms before sending them into the offices and yeah, we just we make it really simple. And now, you know, we we have a lot of repeat people that come up to us at festivals and say, oh, I've registered to vote with you, you know, four years ago. Like you know, it's not something that you always have at the top of mind. So we are your reminder. You know, everyone has a lot of things on their mind. It's easy to forget to keep your address, you know, updated, kids are moving when they're in college and whatnot. So yeah, we're there to remind you. So, in your opinion, why is it so important for them to come up to your booth at Shaking Needs or any other festival and register with you, besides it being hassle free.

3:22 Well, the first thing that comes to mind, as we've registered a few people here for the very first time, even some on their eighteenth birthday, and you know what, those are the ones that were really exciting because that person is always going to remember that time that they were seeing their favorite band and they registered to vote, and that's kind of serves as a built in reminder. Absolutely and you know you're right though, because we get caught up in life. People forget to register or they don't have time to register, and you guys make it real simple here, and like how long does it take? Like a minute? Probably a minute, you know, i'd say to it most some people see the paper form and they're like, ah, I'm like really, trust me, it doesn't take that long. It's really easy. And you know, if you do register with us, or at least get on our email list, you know we're not going to spam you, but we are going to remind you of key voter deadlines. You know, when's the last day to send in your absentee ballot? When you know when does when are the midterms? You know, there's a lot of other elections happening besides that, only one that people really think about. So we you know where, we know what state you're in. That's about it, really, and then we can send you reminders for all those key election dates in your state. Yeah, And like you don't necessarily get that if you do it on your own right, No, you would. You would go to the DMB or wherever, fill out a piece of paper and you know you'd forget about it, and I don't blame you. And you know, when I was younger, when I registered to vote, like they would

4:55 come to your schools. I remember that, but I don't even think they really do that so much anymore. Like they're not going to schools and getting kids to sign up. And our whole philosophy is, you know, kids aren't going to register to vote unless you ask them too. Yeah, and I think it's so important what you do because of what you just said. Number One, At music festivals, you're gonna get a lot of people that are kids that probably otherwise wouldn't register or for whatever reason, they can't do it on their own, you know, whether it be they don't have a way to get there, they don't know what they're doing. Yeah, they can be intimidating, you know, politics in general. They might not know all the issues, and that's fine. You know, you'll you'll get there.

5:41 But you know, some people's parents might really be on them. Oh you're eighteen, time to register to vote. Other people's parents not going to tell them that. And when you approach us at a music festival, sometimes parents come with their kids to register for the first time, which is really cool. But you know, we make it very not intimidating and very simple. Well I like about too, based on what you're just saying. So I'm thinking about it, and like, if I'm a kid at a festival and I go to register with you guys, I can do it privately with my own you know, me doing without my parents, like telling me how I have to vote, what I have to do and all that, which, especially nowadays, I think a lot of kids think that because you know, parents want to be influenced, but kids want to have their own voice totally. And you know, not every state requires that you designate a specific party when you register. A lot do if you want to vote in the primaries, but you know, if not, you don't have to. And we're definitely not staring over your shoulder and trying to influence you one way or the other. You know, we're just making sure you filled everything out correctly and put the today's date instead of your birthday. That sort of thing.

6:55 I think too. It's touch on a point of being at music festival and it's like a good time, so so like you're more less stressed about it. I think if you register here and if you have to go through all jump through all the hoops by yourself and have people like your parents standing over you, and you can just come here do it and do it on your own. Totally, totally. We're largely volunteer based. Um we've had an office in New York City, but our full time staff is you know, only twenty thirty people. So our volunteers are awesome. You know, they're music lovers too. They get to volunteer with us and come see shows and festivals for free, and we're always having a good time at the booth. And you know, we usually have little incentives like a limit edition pin or something like that to check your status, so you know, it's it's a fun time. It's funny. You should say that because I was just gonna mentioned about about the pins and stuff you do. You don't get that when you go to register vote on your own. No, well, I should point out it's actually it's illegal to incentivize someone to register to vote, right.

7:58 That's why we have other actions you can take, like digital actions, say check your voter, check your status so you can type in your information your address and it'll tell you whether or not you're registered and at what address. You know, some people realize, Oh, shoot, I'm not registered or oh I've moved since then, and we can update your address right there on the spot. Cool. And so what other festivals are you going to be at this year? Oh? A lot? Where it will be at like fifty plus festivals, you know, Lil bluesa Bonaru see here now, Newport Folk Festival, rail Bird, Electric Forests. Cool. And it's their website or social media that you can tell people about that they can check out, even stuff like that, like where you're gonna be at the next festival.

8:48 Let's say they weren't You're at Shaky Needs, but they want to do it, but they're gonna be at some other festival. Yeah, we're always looking for new volunteers. And so Yeah, our website has everything head count org. You can click on events or festival see everything we're going to this summer and beyond, and you can sign up right there. It takes a minute is to create a quick user profile. You can sign up and then we'll let you know if you go made the team. Cool. And I also want to add that you know, basically some people may think, oh, my vote doesn't matter, what have you, And the fact is it doesn't matter what your political belief is. It's a matter of being able to express your opinion, your belief and making your choice, which nobody else can do for you. So that's why it's important to register, isn't it.

9:41 Yeah, I mean it is your right, so why not use it? And you know what I tell people when they're like, oh, my vote doesn't matter, I'm like, that's fine. You're entitled to your own opinion. But if you don't vote, then you can't complain that's true. And what if everybody thinks my vote doesn't matter, then it matters even more because nobody's voting because of that exactly. Yep, so does definitely matter. Are there any final words you want to leave our lizards with or anything we haven't covered yet that you want them to know? Yeah, I would just encourage people to check out our website. We have a ton of great registration tools on there. You know, when it is election time, you can easily just check your polling place. They'll tell you exactly where you need to be, um, what dates and stuff. And so I have to volunteer, you know. We go to concerts all the time. Every night, We're at shows everywhere in the States. And you get to see the show for free and we shut down the table before the headliners. So um, it's it's really awesome. You get to meet ale on new people and registered voters at the same time. Well, I could tell you if I was like eighteen, nineteen, twenty whatever, I would be volunteering. Just yeah, there's no limits at the festival, but there is no age. Limb Our volunteer group is really across the board age and demograph it wise, you know, so everyone is welcome, that's for sure. Nice. Well, it's great what you're doing here. I think it's more important than ever because the more people that vote, the more people that have a voice. And thank

11:11 you for being at these festivals and doing this and getting people not only aware but helping them through the red tape in the house. Yeah, a lot of it is awareness, you know, besides just registering. You know, it's awareness. It's gonna reminds you to think twice about certain things and just realize that your voice does matter. Yes, it does. Well, thank you very much for doing what you do and thanks for being on the Adventures of pate Man. Yeah, thank you so much. Thank you for listening to the Adventures of plate Man. I'm W for Cui Radio