According to the U.S. Election Project, in 2016, 28.6% of Americans, equating to more than 92 million people, were disenfranchised and ineligible to vote in the presidential election. The disenfranchised groups include youth under 18, non-citizens, incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people (depending on state laws), residents of U.S. territories, those without government issued IDs (depending on state laws), and those declared “mentally incapacitated” (depending on state laws). This monumental number does not even factor in voter suppression.

 

In 2016, I created the first iteration of this project by collaborating with more than 15 artists, activists, and organizations to create more than 25 imaginative voting stations in cities throughout the United States and Mexico. Each of these voting stations took different forms, including sculptural public installations, performative guerrilla actions, or pedagogical tools to encourage students to create their own voting stations open to all. In a season where the disenfranchised were deemed to be silent and invisible, these events were not only a site for casting symbolic votes but also for loud celebration and protest.

 

For the 2020 iteration, I created 50 Voting Kits for the Disenfranchised. These kits were available to anyone who requested them for creating their own Official Unofficial Voting Station for the presidential election. All 50 kits were requested and distributed to voting station activators all over the world.