Celebrities, activists push Vote Early Day

Coalition of leaders aim to boost already high voter turnout Saturday.

With voter turnout already at record highs, the last weekend of early voting looms even larger thanks to a broad coalition of leaders, activists, celebrities and corporations marking Vote Early Day on Saturday.

Billing itself as amovement similar to Giving Tuesday or National Voter Registration Day, Vote Early Day is a huge effort promoting early voting as a way to ensure that millions more Americans are able to cast their ballots.

“For people whomay be unable to come out to early voting during weekdays, the polls are open this Saturday in every county in the state,” Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said. “Weekend voting is another way voting is so convenient in Georgia, including three weeks of early voting, no- excuse absentee voting and Election Day. Take advantage of early voting thisweekend and avoid the long lines on Election Day.”

The coalition behind Vote Early Day includes disparate voices from both sides of the aisle, including both Republican Raffensperger and California’s Democratic Secretary of State Alex Padilla.

A virtual rally called# VoteWith Us will accompany Vote Early Day and include performances from artists such as Justin Bieber, Demi Lova to and Common, as well as appearances from WNBA star

Candice Dupree and youth activists Emma Gonzalez and David Hogg. The rally can be seen at www.votewith.us.

Vote Early Day provides resources about early voting in each state at voteearlyday.org. The Atlanta Journal- Constitution has created a map of absentee ballot drop boxes that can be found on the Politics page at AJC. com. It also has compiled links to county websites that estimate wait times. The AJC also has an online form for reporting voting issues.