Election Day!
Every two years the whole country votes on every House member, and one-third of Senate members. Turnout is higher in years we vote for a President, but it’s often the midterms that decide how much each President can do.
Instead of dithering and worrying all through election day, take action! The best thing you can do is something! We have ideas, below.
How to do it:
Throughout election day, take action to encourage voting! Election.Holiday proposes turning it into a national celebration, whether the government acknowledges it or not. Here’s some ways you can support that effort:
- Join a phone bank to encourage folks to get to the polls. Check Mobilize.US
- Decorate your car with electoral messages
- Keep online messaging positive, and avoid chaos and distractions.
- Interact with what you want more of: like or comment on pro-voting messages!
- Offer to drive people to the polls or drop box. (Post a note online inviting friends to reach out.)
- Ask a first time voter you know if they have questions or would like company.
- Take sealed snacks or water to a polling location with longs lines. NOTE: a few places have outlawed this, and nearly everywhere bars partisan t-shirts and messages adjacent to polling locations. Keep it neutral!
- Wear your “I voted” sticker, or wear bling to remind people, yeah, that’s TODAY!
- Stick a sign on your lawn welcoming neighbors to join you on the porch for hot cider after they vote. Make it an “electoral open house.”
- Decorate your home like you used to for the 4th of July! Make it a civic holiday.
- If you have managerial control over a business, close for a few hours to give your employees time to vote, or plan your work assignments around making sure everyone gets a chance. (In many states you legally have to, but make it easy.)
Make election day a celebration, and reframe voting as an opportunity, not a chore! People have died around the world for the chance to hold a small quota of power over who controls their country.
