For months, Donald Trump and his enablers have waged an attack on the democratic process. They’re mobilizing an army to intimidate voters at the polls, they’re trying to limit access to early voting, and they even tried to dismantle the US Postal Service. During this triple crisis—the COVID-19 pandemic, the recession, and the crisis of police violence and institutional racism—the stakes are simply too high to sit at home and watch the results play out.

The basis of American democracy is that we pick our leaders — our leaders should not be able to pick their voters. We are #DemocracyRising.

On November 3rd, after you vote, volunteer at the polls or do get out the vote, come to Black Lives Matter Plaza. Thousands of us are planning to come together to defend democracy and ensure that Trump isn’t able to steal the 2020 Presidential Election.

We’re going to start this next phase of the election cycle in the streets. We’ll have GoGo bands, salsa dancers, artists, cultural workers, and much more. We’ll also be watching the election results coming in on big screens. Votes will still be coming in, so this will (probably) not be the time we need to create disruption to stop a coup - yet. But we’ll be in a good place to respond to whatever might happen. This has been a really long and dark era so we’re going to be together to process our feelings of hope, anger, fear and exhaustion as a community.

Regardless of the results, election-night programming will probably wrap up around midnight so we can be energized and ready to hit the streets again on the 4th.

Logistical Information:

As we understand it, streets will be closed from 15th St to 17th St NW and from Constitution Ave to L St. NW, so please plan your trip in accordingly. There will be overflow stations with water, restrooms and snacks in McPherson Square and Liberty Plaza.