Planning Your 2023 Activation

If you wait until the last day to vote, issues could come up that could prevent you from casting your ballot. But when you vote early, you give yourself the time to plan for anything that might come your way—ensuring that last-minute problems, long lines at the polls, voter disinformation, and confusing election laws cannot get in the way of you making your voice heard.

Over 220 million people (94% of eligible voters) can now vote early either by mail or in person. In 2018, 38.2% of voters cast their ballot before Election Day, and in 2020 that number was up to 64.78%! We want to keep this trend going in 2022 by urging as many Americans to vote early as possible.

There are a number of ways Americans can cast their ballot ahead of Election Day. People can vote early by mailing in a ballot, dropping off a ballot at an election office or drop box, or going to a local election office to cast a ballot in person. In some states, all registered voters receive a ballot by mail at least two weeks before Election Day. To find out the options for voting early in your community, check out our online voter tool (coming soon).

If people do not live in a state with options to vote early, they can still find their polling location ahead of time and make a plan to vote on Election Day. We encourage partners in the states without vote early options (Connecticut, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, and South Carolina) to celebrate the holiday by helping their friends and neighbors make a plan for how they will cast their ballot in the upcoming election.

Vote Early Day is on October 28, 2022. Scheduled for the Friday before Halloween, Vote Early Day occurs just as the nation as a whole fully tunes into the election and is ready to learn about their voting options.

How you celebrate is totally up to you! Just like there is no right or wrong way to celebrate Halloween or the Fourth of July, there is no one way to celebrate Vote Early Day. Help Americans cast their ballots early in the way that best fits your community, mission, and celebrating style. Check out the suggested Vote Early Day celebrations in the toolkit above for inspiration.

Vote Early Day activations are the diverse celebrations our partners are hosting across the country. Groups ranging from local community centers to media corporations are planning their own creative events, campaigns, and outreach under the umbrella of this national movement. In addition to the thousands of partner celebrations, we will also be hosting four regional tentpole activations across the country to generate national buzz.

Studies have shown that the actions below are the most effective ways we can get voters to cast their ballot, so we encourage you to integrate one or two of these actions into your celebration: 

• Voters cast their ballot early at your Vote Early Day celebration
  (either in person or with a ballot drop box)

• Voters make a plan to vote early
  (this can be accomplished by filling out a Vote Early Day plan to vote card or using our online voter tool)

• Voters pledge to vote early
  (this can be accomplished by filling out a Vote Early Day pledge card or using our online voter tool)

• Voters request their absentee ballot
  (depending on the state, this can be accomplished with a paper form or through your election official’s website)

• Voters post a photo on social media with their “I voted” sticker and tag #VoteEarlyDay to encourage others to vote early as well

The Vote Early Day toolkit is your one-stop shop for building your celebration! We provide you with all the plug-and-play materials you need for a successful Vote Early Day celebration, from planning guides to email templates to social media graphics. We’ve tailored the resources to fit the needs of different kinds of organizations: nonprofits, campuses, governments, businesses, and individuals.

Every organization that signs up to be a Vote Early Day partner and shares their plan with our team will receive a free swag bag of posters, buttons, stickers, plan to vote postcards, and more. As part of our toolkit, we also have print-at-home swag where you can download materials like signage, postcards, banners, and social media graphics.

If you’re part of a business, nonprofit, government office, campus group, or other organization, consider having your group organize a Vote Early Day celebration of your own! If you’re an individual looking to get involved, check out our suggestions for individual activations or use our interactive map (coming soon) to see if you can join in an existing celebration.

The Civic Holidays (Vote Early Day and our friends at National Voter Registration Day, National Voter Education Week, and Election Hero Day) were created to bring together a wide range of organizations and communities in pursuit of an America where everyone participates and votes. These four holidays provide a celebratory moment to guide voters through registering to vote, getting educated about what is on their ballot, casting their ballot, and thanking the election officials who make our democracy possible. You can learn more about the Civic Holidays here.

With cases falling and vaccines remaining readily accessible across the country, we are excited to offer suggestions for celebrations that involve in-person gatherings. Protecting the health of all who celebrate Vote Early Day is most important to us, however, and we will continue to track the pandemic and its effects on Americans’ ability to vote early. Sign up for our email list to receive the most up-to-date information.