How to do it:

Six members of my family attended the June 14th No Kings protest, but only one of us signed up at No Kings! for updates and information. We participated across three locations, and in each one, our estimation of the crowds exceeded the official estimates of police and press. This wasn’t just our subjective impression — when I asked on-site the people assigned to estimating also had higher numbers than the ones that followed in press.

Running from a low of 5 million (still historic) to a high of more than 12 million (record-setting!) the range relied on the tactics used by the crowd counters. Alt National Parks sent thirty thousand people around the nation to directly count, using skills learned on the job, and they were the source of numbers topping 12 million people. Police and the media chronically under-report, whether due to agenda or an effort to conservatively avoid over-inflation, and they led to the lowest estimates.

Ultimately the authoritative source for crowd counting — the one the history books will rely on — is the Crowd Counting Consortium. They use a blend of tactics to develop the most accurate numbers they are able, in a process that takes months. They will accept organizer’s estimates when a trusted counting protocol is at work. This includes sign-ins, flyer distribution, or other formal techniques. If you participate in a protest, please consider signing in by registering. I hear security concerns about signing up for a list, but the phone you carried is a bigger tracking risk than your name and email on a registration form.

Finally, if you organize a small adjunct protest in a rural area, submit your formal report to the Crowd Counting Consortium. In addition to counting the number of people, they also count the number of events and keep an eye on distribution. Small rural events were the primary missing data source from June 14th: Counting No Kings!