Roles: Impact Strategy, Creative Strategy, Partnerships, Project Director, Steering Committee Chair, Spokesperson

Impact: Americans cast 3 million votes on Vote Early Day in 2020 with 2,700+ partners, 70+ press outlets, and creators with a combined followership over 350+ million calling on voters to cast their ballot early.

More: At the end of our 2018 election campaign at MTV, it was clear that a seismic shift was happening in American politics: Election Day was becoming the last day to vote. For a national brand like MTV, however, there was no clear milestone during early voting when we could fire up our audiences to get out to vote. Laws vary so widely across the country. I helped develop an idea for Vote Early Day, a new national holiday that would make it easier for Americans to vote early and encourage brands to call on their audiences to cast their ballot.

At MTV, we convened leading organizations – e.g., Twitter, CAA Foundation, Snapchat, Democracy Works – to collaborate on the creation of the holiday. Over the first 4 months, I steered the team to launch in March 2020 with over 65 partners. I oversaw the strategy development, branding and site design, partnership development, and announcement.

By our first Vote Early Day - Saturday, October 24th, 2020 - the holiday had over 2,700 partners, including some of the biggest brands and nonprofits in the country. We also engaged government; the holiday was supported by the US Election Assistance Commission, and we created a bi-partisan election administration advisory board helmed by the secretaries of state of Georgia and California.

When the day arrived, #VoteEarlyDay was the top trending topic on Twitter. Both presidential candidates, Trump and Biden, called on their supporters to vote that day; influencers and celebrities with a combined following of over 350 million asked their fans to vote or modeled what it looked like to vote on Vote Early Day.  At MTV, we funded local activations across the country, including chalk art in over 20 cities, music festival-style massive balloon chains in 5 cities, and a red carpet at an early voting site in Houston. More than 3 million people voted on Vote Early Day. With 2,700+ partners and 70+ press hits, Vote Early Day shattered Saturday early vote records with more than 3 million ballots cast.

Vote Early Day has won Shorty Social Good and Fast Company World Changing Idea awards. Read more about Vote Early Day’s creation in a chapter I co-authored in The Intersector: How the Public, Nonprofit, and Private Sectors Can Address America's Challenges from Brookings Institution Press.

Created in close partnership with Impactual. Branding and graphics created by Hyperakt. Chalk and balloon activations developed and produced by TaskForce. Joey Wozniak was Vote Early Day Project Director from March 2020 until August 2021. You can see the other steering committee members who helped create Vote Early Day here.