Here to Inspire You and Your 2026 Election Work
This election season, you might see giant wearable brains parading through Portland to remind Oregonians to return their ballots, or aliens from Planet No Choice registering voters at Lake Merritt in Oakland. You might catch drag performers picking up voters on a party bus in Baltimore, or find tiny dollhouse figures in a Georgia shadowbox acting out the excuses people give for not voting.
These are four of the 13 artistic activism projects taking on the 2026 midterms through the Radically Ridiculous Midterm Accelerator at the Center for Artistic Activism. They use puppetry, animation, satire, song, karaoke, pop quizzes, and birthday ambushes across over 14 states, including Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Maine, Minnesota, and North Carolina.
The projects pair the spectacle with the practical: check your registration, make a plan, find your drop box, bring a friend. The costumes, songs, and weirdness get people to stop and talk, and it’s in that moment that mobilization can happen.
Meet the Lucky 13 Projects
Bring the ridiculous to your community
- See a project you want to be part of? Reach out and we’ll connect you with the team.
- Need help with your own election project? Sign up for office hours, which we’re offering double in October.
- Want these projects to reach more voters? A gift of $25 helps the Center support and amplify them through Election Day.
An Ode to Data Centers
Led by: Ryan Jones, Black Empowerment for Environmental Sustainability (BEES)
Where: Georgia
An Ode to Data Centers gives Georgia’s water a voice: a poem or song written and performed from the perspective of a bottle of water, or a body of water, naming the frustrations many Georgians feel as data centers spread across the state. The piece will be filmed or animated for social media, then performed live at a Get Out the Vote event by a group dressed as, or carrying, water bottle puppets, turning frustration into spectacle and calling people to the polls to protect their communities and natural resources.
Baddies to the Ballot
Led by: Mel De Miami, Ibis Valdez, Nina Osoria Ahmadi, Bella Lavish
Where: Miami-Dade, Florida
Big hoops, long lashes, and a red carpet: Baddies to the Ballot turns casting a ballot into the kind of moment Miami’s nightlife and creative community is excited to post about. A steering committee from that scene helps shape the campaign, pop-up “I Voted” selfie setups make voting sexy and shareable, and ballot-education content goes out in English, Spanish, and Haitian Creole.
Ballot of Love
Led by: Schuyler deVos, Department of Tenderness
Where: New York
The Department of Tenderness (a speculative city agency devoted entirely to love) sets up field offices asking passersby to call or text someone they care about and plan a date to vote together. A soft intention becomes a firm, shared commitment, and a “Notice of Outstanding Civic Affection” lets people pass the invitation on to others.
DEMOCRATIC SPACE
Led by: Polly García, Cosmovision LLC
Where: California
A crew of good-natured alien defectors, refugees from a planet where no one has ever gotten to choose anything, rolls through Lake Merritt with a cart, a giant world puppet, and voter registration materials. The crew can’t tell one human political faction from another, and they don’t want to: for them, the miracle is the act of choosing itself, and their plea is simple: use the vote or lose it, the way they lost theirs. Absurdity, earnestness, and spectacle mix with mutual aid (food, water, and voting information) for the unhoused neighbors who call the park home.
In the crew’s own words: “We do not care whom you choose and we do not wish to persuade you in any way. The choosing itself is the treasure only found on Planet Earth.”
Drag Me to the Polls
Led by: Ian Madrigal and local drag performers
Where: Maryland
Drag Me to the Polls uses the art and entertainment of drag to help people with marginalized identities vote on Election Day. A party bus with drag performers and an emcee will pick up voters in targeted communities across Baltimore and escort them safely into nearby voting centers. Drag performers will also attract and approach people on the street to invite them aboard. The project reaches out to queer and trans communities, Latiné, Black, and disabled voters in Baltimore City, aiming to make them feel motivated, empowered, and excited to make their voice heard.
Leaving the Party
Led by: ashley sparks, with Allyn Maxfield-Steele, Megan Dobkin, and Trey Hartt, and local partners A Host of People, Boys to Men, Tapestry, Berea College, and more
Where: Michigan, Maine, Kentucky, and North Carolina (with dates in the works for D.C.)
Part immersive theater, part deep canvass, Leaving the Party stages a one-person show about democracy, dementia, and dead dads inside real living rooms, complete with pop quizzes, karaoke, and carrot cake. Local hosts invite a mix of neighbors, with a focus on men who rarely get organized around directly, and every night ends with real conversation about making a plan to vote.
Catch it:
- Portland, Maine: October 5
- Disputanta, Kentucky: October 12
- Berea College, Kentucky: October 13 and 14
- Sylva, North Carolina: October 16
- Durham, North Carolina: October 17
- Washington, D.C.: dates to come
Let’s Save Democracy!
Led by: Mixed Blood Theatre. Written by Alejandro Tey, in collaboration with COPAL MN, Unidos, Minnesota Voice, ACLU MN, Minnesota Justice Research Project, and Ayada Leads. Performed by Melanie Wehrmacher.
Where: Minnesota
Let’s Save Democracy! is a play built with the Immigration Defense Network and a coalition of Minnesota civil rights organizations about voting rights and election defense. One concerned citizen, spiraling in despair over the state of our democracy, turns to the audience to find hope in a caffeine-fueled clown show that makes a big ol’ mess while searching for utopia.
Catch it:
- October 6, 6 p.m.: New Brighton
- October 11, 5 p.m.: Bethlehem Lutheran Church Twin Cities
- October 14, 6 p.m.: Macalester Plymouth United Church
- October 24, 2 p.m.: Sabathani Community Center, as part of the Minnesota Justice Research Democracy Fair
(N)ICE Officers Deployed at Polling Stations
Led by: Kristina Wong, with director Jenessa Joffe
Where: California
A satirical video, co-created with mixed-status households in Koreatown, spoofs the aesthetics of ICE recruitment footage – “(N)ICE Officers” dance, cheer, and welcome people to vote instead of intimidating them away from the polls. The team also films in public to galvanize people directly, working to combat ICE-based voter suppression and increase turnout in immigrant and mixed-status communities.
No Small Vote
Led by: Melanie Shaw, Ellen Gadberry
Where: Georgia
Tiny dollhouse figures, tucked into shadowboxes in everyday public spaces, act out the little excuses that keep people from voting: too busy, too cynical, too unsure it matters. But there’s no such thing as a vote too small. Each miniature points people to VOTE411 for registration and polling information.
Catch it: Look for installations around the cities above, starting next to the College Park MARTA station.
Stop the Vote
Led by: Mahayana (Yana) Landowne, Trillionaires for Trump Where: Coordinated actions in Arizona, Washington, New York, California, and more
The satirical protest troupe Trillionaires for Trump stages a mock campaign to “discourage” ordinary people from voting, since obviously only trillionaires deserve a say. A healthy dose of spite to get people to the polls.
Too Early for Happy Birthday. Not Too Early to Vote.
Led by: Cate Mayer, Be The Ones
Where: South Carolina
Student “Birthday Buddies” ambush classmates in high-traffic campus areas with cards, hats, stickers, and a booming “HAPPY BIRTHDAY!” Of course it isn’t the person’s birthday, but that’s the opening for a peer-to-peer conversation about South Carolina’s early voting window that runs October 19-31. The conversation leads to a signed “Birthday Wish” pledging the students’ early voting plan.
USE YOUR NOGGIN! The Giant Brain Ballot Brigade
Led by: Sarina Saturn with Bill Griesar of NW Noggin and Jeannie LaFrance, Brooks Nelson, and YeeWon Chong of Western States Center, Chosen Families, and Affirming Care
Where: Oregon
USE YOUR NOGGIN! brings giant wearable brains, music, movement, and ridiculousness to Oregon’s vote-by-mail election. During the weeks when ballots arrive, the Giant Brain Ballot Brigade will pop up and process through public spaces around Portland, using enormous brains, oversized ballot props, and live music to transform a simple voting reminder into an irresistible public spectacle. The group’s stick band, which regularly gathers to sing and play protest and movement songs, gives the brains their rhythm and soundtrack. Familiar Portland frogs may join the procession, too. Beneath all the absurdity is one very practical message: USE YOUR NOGGIN. MAKE A PLAN. RETURN YOUR BALLOT.
YOU’RE WELCOME: Oligarchs Educate the Masses About the Proposition Slate 2026
Led by: L.M. Bogad and friends Where: California
Oligarchs take to the streets and the seas to share the elite, insider, moneyed perspective on California’s ballot measures, including the one-time billionaire tax. More specifics to come!