Earlier this week, Voices for Human Needs reported on CHN’s efforts to promote voter turnout by partnering with Vote Forward, a nonpartisan nonprofit group that is recruiting hundreds of thousands of volunteers to write personal letters to millions of potential voters, urging them to turn out and cast ballots this year. 

CHN believes in the power of mobilizing everyone to get involved in democracy, whether it’s ensuring that those who can vote do vote, encouraging people to support democracy in as many activities as possible beyond casting their own ballot,  (like election protection or poll greeting). 

As part of this effort, CHN is promoting Vote Early Day, which this election cycle falls on Friday, October 28, the Friday before Halloween. CHN’s partnership with Vote Early Day encourages current and potential voters to register to vote and make a plan to vote early – studies show that people who make a plan to vote are much more likely to do so. 

Vote Early Day was launched in 2020 as part of an effort to make sure people were able to, and encouraged, to vote even in the midst of a raging pandemic when vaccines were not yet available. According to its website, Vote Early Day is a “nonpartisan movement of media companies, businesses, nonprofits, election administrators, and creative people working to ensure all Americans have the tools to vote early.” 

In 2020, Vote Early Day representatives say, the new holiday attracted 134 premier partners and 2,700 general partners from all 50 states. More than 3 million voters cast ballots on Vote Early Day alone. 

In the last midterm election, 2018, Vote Early Day says, 33 percent of Americans cast their ballots early. In the 2020 presidential election, amid the pandemic, that number rose to 64 percent. Still, election laws vary from state to state – and sometimes even among local jurisdictions within a given state.  Understanding when, and how, to vote early can be confusing for many potential voters. 

Part of the reason for creating Vote Early Day was to demystify the process of voting early and make it easier for voters to understand their options. “In fact,” the Vote Early Day website states, “over 220 million Americans (about 80 percent of eligible voters) have options to vote before Election Day with no excuse needed – they may just not know it! We are working to support or build new technology tools that enable Americans to more easily look up and explore their opportunities to cast their ballot ahead of Election Day – whether that’s voting by mail or in person.” 

If you’d like to sign your organization up to participate in Vote Early Day, go here. If you’d like to see the group’s extensive partner toolkit, go here. And to find voter information for your state, register or check your registration, and many other resources, go here.