Vote Early Day is a movement by a coalition of nonprofits and businesses which encourages voters to use early ballots and wants October 24 to become the official “Vote Early Day” holiday.
Though Vote Early Day was initially spearheaded by the media company, MTV,[1] it has become a project of New Venture Fund, a left-of-center grantmaking fund run by Arabella Advisors, a nonprofit consulting firm for other left-of-center nonprofit funds. Conventionally, higher voter turnout rates are assumed to benefit Democrats, though the data on recent elections are more ambiguous. [2] [3]
Vote Early day spent $100,000 on a full-page advertisement in the Wall Street Journal on May 12, 2020, which encouraged business leaders to promote early voting for their employees and customers. The ad listed support from twenty-six major corporations, including Twitter, Viacom/CBS, and Patagonia. [4]
California Secretary of State Alex Padilla and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger are members of Vote Early Day’s committee. [5]
Early Voting Resources
Vote Early Day’s website provides links to each state’s early voting laws and registration for early voting access, as well as access to early voting for military personnel. [6]
In 2016, 40 percent of voters voted before Election Day. [7] The objective of Vote Early Day is to increase the early voting rate, particularly by targeting young voters. [8] The organization also intends to counteract the negative impact of COVID-19 on voting rates. [9]
Partner Organizations
Vote Early Day’s coalition consists of 72 of left-of-center nonprofits, media outlets, social media groups, and other corporations, including:[10]
- MTV
- League of Women Voters
- The United States Conference of Mayors
- Univision
- YMCA
- USA Today
- Snapchat
- Democracy Fund
- REI Co-op
- BET
- National Disability Rights Network
- Ad Council
- Ben and Jerry’s
- CMT
- United Way
- Campus Vote Project
- CAA Foundation
- Hillel International
- Buzzfeed
- Pay Pal
- Levi Strauss
- DoSomething.org
- Patagonia
- Asian Americans Advancing Justice
- VH1
- NAACP
- Anonymous Content
- Alliance for Youth Organizing
- Center for Tech and Civic Life
- Viacom-CBS
- WME
- Comedy Central
- March for Our Lives
- Refinery 29
- Harness
- HeadCount
- Andrew Goodman Foundation
- Nonprofit Vote
- When We All Vote
- Paramount Network
- Defending Democracy Together
- TV Land
- Civic Alliance
- Vote at Home
- Logo
- Students Learn Students Vote
- Lead MN
- Student PIRGs
- Poder Latinx
- Move Texas
- Rise
- All In
- Campus Election Engagement Project
- Unidos US
- National League of Cities
- #VoteTogether
- Feminist Majority Foundation
- Ballot Ready
- Asian and Pacific Islander American Vote
- Sweetgreen
- Kenneth Cole
- Hispanics in Philanthropy
- IMax
- Phone 2 Action
- SB Project
- B1G Voting Challenge
- James Beard Foundation
- Fair Elections Center
- Arizona State University
- Lush