Time To Plan Your Election Day Celebration

With the 2012 election quickly approaching, it’s time to start planning your election day party. Parties with an election theme are a fun way to encourage friends and family to get involved by exercising their rite to vote. Decorating for the party and giving out favors, like lapel pins, are entertaining ways to get people excited about the election.

It’s Going to be a Tight Race

Polls released today show Romney and Obama are tied, each with 46% of the population. With this dead heat in the race for the White House, both parties’ campaigns are going to have to step up their game to guarantee a win. Due to this lock among of the parties, it is even more important to push people to vote. An election day party is a great excuse to get friends and family together to discuss what each candidate stands for in a relaxing, enjoyable atmosphere.

Get Creative

Use your creativity throughout each detail of your party, beginning with invitations. Create patriotic invitations that don each parties’ symbol, a donkey and an elephant. Keep the invitations lighthearted by choosing a playful font. As soon as guests arrive, present them with an “I VOTED!” lapel pin that they can wear to show they got involved in this year’s election.

Food & Drink

Give your food an election theme by naming dishes after candidates and political issues. Create a “campaign trail mix” with various nuts, pretzels, and chocolate. For an extra special touch, put the mix in individual red, white, and blue cups so guests can easily grab some and mingle with guests. If you’re in a pinch for time, order hoagies from your favorite sandwich shop and call them “Uncle Sammies.” Let guests make their own cocktails liberally or conservatively. Keep the patriotic theme going by using red, white, and blue plates, forks, cups, and napkins.
 
Stress to guests that the purpose of the party is not to speak at length about their political views, but to focus on voting. Remind guests that we are lucky to live in a country that gets to vote for our leader. To encourage guests to have a good time create a song playlist that encourages people to dance and sing along. I also encourage you to invite children to the party as well so that they can get involved at an early age. There’s never a time too early to speak to your children about the importance in voting.
 
Jesse Dugan has been blogging and guest posting for several years and is always looking for unique opportunities. Follow him @JesseDugan.