WASHINGTON: In the 24 hours following Taylor Swift’s Instagram post supporting Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris, around 400,000 people visited a federal voting information site. However, some social media posts have inaccurately represented this number as new voter registrations.
Swift announced her endorsement of Harris and urged her 284 million followers to register to vote in the November 5 election via an Instagram post immediately after the presidential debate. She also included a custom URL leading to vote.gov in a subsequent Instagram story.
Social media claims suggested that Swift’s endorsement led to 400,000 new voter registrations. In reality, vote.gov, operated by the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA), does not register voters directly. Instead, it provides links to state election websites where voter registration is handled.
By Wednesday afternoon, Swift’s Instagram story had directed 337,826 visitors to the vote.gov site, according to Reuters. This story, which disappears 24 hours after posting, drove a total of 405,999 visits to vote.gov, as confirmed by a GSA spokesperson.
While Swift’s efforts have highlighted a decline in voter registration rates among those aged 18-29, and the Harris campaign hopes to leverage her endorsement, the GSA has not yet provided details on how many of these visitors proceeded to their state election sites.
VERDICT: The claim that Taylor Swift’s link led to 400,000 new voter registrations lacks context. The number represents visits to vote.gov, not actual voter registrations.
