Thursday July 31, 2008

Thursday's Crosby, Stills and Nash concert at the Pavillion offered folks more than just classic tunes.

"Everybody who is eligible should go out there and vote," says Suzanne Brannon with the group HeadCount.

Those concert-goers who have not yet registered to vote were given that chance thanks to HeadCount. It's part of a push the group is making at concerts nationwide this summer.

"Dave Matthews, Jack Johnson, John Mayer...they're all big supporters of us," explains HeadCount's Adam Nuckols.

HeadCount got started before the 2004 elections, registering almost 50,000 people. This time around they're hoping to double that figure by signing up 100,000 eligible voters.

"I mean this is a very important election and we really want people to be able to come out and register," Brannon says.

"We're non-partisan, we're not affiliated with any politics," Nuckols explains. "Our basically main goal is just to make sure people are registered and make sure people are going to get out there to vote. Because that's the most important thing."

They say while they don't want to see any potential voter stay home on election day, the worst thing would be for someone to want to cast a ballot, but to have not registered.

"Then you're out of luck and I'm really sorry," Brannon says. "You have 29 days before the election is the deadline. You have to be registered 29 days before."

That puts the registration deadline at October 6.

They say Thursday's registration numbers weren't great, but big events like Bonnaroo, they say they were able to register 1,500 voters there this summer and they're going to keep on going through election day.

For more information on HeadCount's efforts, go to http://headcount.org/.