A Boston musician is asking performers across the country to give voters a soothing experience at election polls.
Mike Block is the founder and director of Play for the Vote. He said the idea for this organization came to him after the last 2020 presidential debate between Trump and Biden.
“This was the debate that was particularly stressful, with a lot of yelling,” he recalled. “And already at this point in the in the cycle, there's a lot of conversation about potential violence at the polls, even.”
Block said he was practicing his music that following morning and realized how it made him feel better. He said he then thought about playing at the polls.
He enrolled 1,500 musicians across the country within three weeks.
This election cycle Block said the goal is to have about 5,000 volunteers perform.
“Since 2020 we formed a nonprofit organization," he said, "and have, you know, hired a staff so that we can actually do this with more intention and with more impact in the upcoming November 5 election. Play for the Vote is now a nonprofit and has about four staffers.”
This includes an administrator, website consultant, nonprofit consultant and Block.
Block said all the performers are volunteers and they choose where they would like to play.
“So, musicians, when they sign up, they are choosing their polling location," he said, "and they're choosing the times that they perform. And we're sort of encouraging people to pick peak voting times.”
Those times are before and after work hours and during most lunch hours.
Block said some past participants are signing up again. The nonprofit prepares kits and resources for the musicians. It also checks for conflicts to ensure musicians aren’t signing up for the same location.
Musicians who are interested in performing at a polling place can sign up at Playforthevote.org.
