Voting Can Lift the Soul—with the Help of Jugglers, Pizza, & a Cha-Cha Slide

Jim Hightower, sometimes called America’s favorite populist, said this just before the 2018 elections:

Here’s a crazy idea: Make voting fun, a festive occasion for the whole family. In Australia, most polling places have barbecues. America’s democratic pageant doesn’t have to be a grinding obstacle course, an intimidating experience…or boring. After all, it belongs to us. Let’s make it better.

And in this election season, nonprofits in cities across the country are heeding Hightower’s call, with circus shows, free pizza, and line dancing (six feet apart) lifting the spirits of soon-to-be-voters patiently waiting for hours in the cold and in the heat, in lines snaking around corners and through parking lots, to exercise their most basic right in a democracy.

Some of these efforts are being sponsored by the Unstoppable Voters Project, a decade-old initiative to create the field of artistic activism so that artists struggling to make change are no longer thwarted by the lack of practical skills, and activists are no longer frustrated by the monotony of marches, petition drives and vigils. This election season, the Unstoppable Voters Project is supporting work in 14 states to celebrate voting rights and counter voter suppression.