Disclaimer: This blog is not about politics in the sense of party affiliations and I am not making a political statement. Further, I am not interested in hearing your views on one party or the other. Rather, this blog is just a thought experiment on manipulating an election.
This general idea is not new by any means. There is a book that I have not read titled “How to Steal a Presidential Election“. When I came up with this blog title I didn’t realize this book existed. Instead, my title came indirectly via another book series titled “Stealing the Network ..” with multiple books including “How to Own an Identity“, “How to Own the Box“, and “How to Own a Continent“. The rest of the title comes from Swift re-releasing her albums, each name appended with “Taylor’s Version” in a move to reclaim the rights of her own work.
Like those books, this is more a brief thought experiment on how small numbers of people can influence much bigger change.
After the debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump on September 10, 2024, Taylor Swift publicly endorsed candidate Harris saying “I will be casting my vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in the 2024 Presidential Election“. This immediately led to a wide variety of response including “will it affect the election“, pondering “how it matters“, “will it matter“, and a celebrity telling another celebrity to “shut up“. This endorsement upset Donald Trump prompting him to say he likes “Mrs. Mahomes much better“ and shortly after posting “I hate Taylor Swift“. That’s the CliffsNotes history relevant to the rest of this blog.
Swift’s endorsement that night triggered a random thought that made me question if it was legal or not. As I developed the idea I shared with a friend very familiar with the law who’s response indicated, at least on the surface, it would not be illegal at least. So here it is…
Swift has 284 million followers on Instagram, 32.8 million on TikTok, and 95.2 million on Twitter. And that is just social media. It’s probably difficult to qualify just how many fans she has in the United States specifically, and yet that is germane to this thought.
After Swift’s endorsement, what if she followed up with a statement to the country? That she would retain staff or a third-party firm that would set up outside polling places this election. That they would allow anyone walking out of the polling place with an “I Voted” sticker to enter into a drawing for free concert tickets. For this promotion, she would put on a series of concerts around the country in major cities to cater to these free tickets. Given her wealth, this would be a drop in the bucket financially and something she can easily afford to do.
Her teams would not ask who they voted for, anyone with the sticker was eligible to enter. Meaning, there would be no signs or clothing with a candidate name, no lobbying for a candidate, and no asking about secret ballot information. Their tables would be farther than required so as not to run afoul of any laws regarding proximity to a polling station.
Technically, this would fall under a sweepstakes by law since you are asking the person to do something to enter, so there are a few caveats. The biggest is that there has to be an “alternate means of entry” (AMoE) to ensure everyone has a chance to win. Swift’s team would need to come up with a way to do that be it email, snail mail, or a more modern version, creative Tweet. Again, none of the AMoE would require a political stance or sharing your political leaning or votes. Swift’s lawyers could figure this out I imagine.
This entire idea seems like it would not violate any local, state, or federal laws regarding the tampering or attempted influence of voters at a polling place. This is interesting to me because of a more social dynamic at play. Brand loyalty is a big thing in today’s world, and brands can be people as much as products. Many people subscribe to a Democrat or Republican brand, some subscribe to a brand around a person such as Donald Trump or Taylor Swift. This thought experiment crosses streams a bit, pitting the brand of a politician and celebrity against a celebrity and singer.
Assuming this does not run afoul of any laws, would such a thing influence the election? I am sure it would, in that voter turnout might be higher. There would be no way to really know if it influenced the election in the way Swift presumably wants. But, in theory, given her fan base and brand, there is a fairly significant chance it could swing an election. Ultimately, this could be a real method where one person could swing an election, especially if this were done in each swing state, following state sweepstakes laws.
This is a bit dystopian, but good food for thought.
