Michelle Obama’s voting initiative announces more than 500 early voting events

Michelle Obama’s voter engagement and mobilization initiative is ready to party — announcing more than 500 early voting events across the country in the weeks leading up to Election Day. 

The aim of When We All Vote’s program, Party at the Polls, is to “turn the voting experience into a community celebration,” organizers said Thursday. The effort from the nonpartisan organization will include a series of free events with the goal of turning voting “into a celebration with music, food, culture and activities for voters of all ages.”

Some of the lineup in battleground states includes a 5K walk Saturday in Window Rock, Ariz., featuring actor Mark Ruffalo and the Native American advocacy group Protect the Sacred, a “Drag Out The Vote” drag show in Phoenix on Oct. 18 with performer Barbra Seville and another in Las Vegas on Oct. 29 with “RuPaul’s Drag Race” alum Plasma, a series of block parties in Philadelphia on Saturday and Oct. 19, and a two-day concert called ONE Musicfest starting Oct. 26 in Atlanta headlined by Cardi B, Jill Scott, Gunna, Victoria Monét and Earth, Wind & Fire.

Other get-out-the-vote events tied to Party at the Polls include “an evening of food, entertainment, and carnival fun” at North Carolina Central University on Oct. 18, a gospel concert in Atlanta on Oct. 26 and a “Dunk the Vote” community block parties in Nevada and Arizona later this month. 

It’s not the first time that Obama’s group is making the early voting push — in 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic, it held socially distanced events, and it organized more Party at the Polls get-togethers ahead of the 2022 midterm elections.  

“At When We All Vote, we believe that voting should be joyful and using our voices at the polls is truly something to celebrate,” said Beth Lynk, When We All Vote’s executive director, in a statement. 

“The election doesn’t start on Election Day — it ends on Election Day. Through our Parties at Polls, we encourage and celebrate early voting,” Lynk said.

Obama launched When We All Vote in 2018, saying when she kicked off the initiative, “It’s time. Our nation requires it.”

“Our democracy and the country we love requires our attention, voice, and participation,” the former first lady said at the time.