Celebs join push to register young voters

A slew of musicians and entertainers — including Ed Norton, Dave Matthews, Russell Simmons, Sarah Silverman, “Weird Al” Yankovic, T.I. and Jason Mraz — are joining an effort to get young people to the polls for the midterm elections.

The celebs are teaming up with the nonpartisan civic engagement group HeadCount in a campaign to register at least 25,000 voters by Election Day, the organization announced Thursday.

{mosads}On Sep. 23, which is National Voter Registration Day, the music, movie and television stars are poised to promote voter registration on their respective social media accounts. According to HeadCount, the entertainers participating have a “collective reach of more than 500 million Facebook fans and Twitter followers.”

“Voting has too often been associated with divisive partisan politics, so it’s no surprise that many young people might sit out the Midterm Elections,” Andy Bernstein, HeadCount’s executive director, said in a statement.

According to a Harvard University poll conducted earlier this year and cited by the group, 23 percent of young Americans say they will “definitely be voting” in November.