@PizzaToThePolls came through!!!! THANK YOU!!!!! pic.twitter.com/CGVPW2R6L6
— squash queen (@lildish_) November 7, 2018
As a means of lifting the spirits of determined voters, this charity delivered 10,005 pizzas to polling places across the country on Election Day.
Pizza to the Polls is a charity dedicated to giving away free pizza to voters who are stuck in long polling lines.
The nonprofit, which is an entirely volunteer-run operation based out of Portland, Oregon, first launched in 2016 as a means of easing the strain of waiting in long lines in order to vote.
The charity uses the Slice pizza delivery app to locate pizzerias near crowded polling places so they can send over several dozen pies to the voters. This year, the volunteers say that they delivered to 576 polling places across 43 states.
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“We were completely energized by all the many reports from Twitter and Instagram of all the times when pizza arrived,” the nonprofit wrote on Twitter. “So many people said how it changed the entire mood of a place and legitimately helped people stay in line. We’re so glad we could make a small difference.”
What’s even more impressive is that the charity had trouble spending all the money that was being sent to the them – the donations were coming in so fast, that they finished the night with $154,600 in contributions from celebrities and voters alike.
“I know this is the least important number of the night, but I love that Pizza to the Polls ended the night with far more money than they started with, despite managing to spend a quarter million dollars (about 13 pizzas per minute!)” said Public Policy Professor Eric Hittinger on Twitter.
The charity says that they will either be setting aside the funds for the next Election Day, or donating it to organizations that feed hungry Americans.
Thank you @PizzaToThePolls for feeding eager voters at #VCElections last night! There were hundreds of people taking advantage of the conditional voter option here in Ventura, California, on November 6. pic.twitter.com/3SyOP2Bqi6
— VC Clerk Recorder (@VCClerkRecorder) November 7, 2018
In the mean time, people are thanking Pizza to the Polls for making it easier for voters to exercise their civic duty. Some voting lines reportedly lasted for as long as 3 hours due to malfunctioning voting machines or a lack of polling places.
“It may sound somewhat silly, but long lines at polling places are largely a result of attempts to disenfranchise particular groups of voters,” wrote Josh Chafetz, a professor of law at Cornell Law School. “Anything we can do to help people stay in line is, [in my opinion], good for democracy.”
We were completely energized by all the many reports from Twitter and Instagram of all the times when pizza arrived. So many people said how it changed the entire mood of a place and legitimately helped people stay in line. We’re so glad we could make a small difference. pic.twitter.com/h0bV3KRwoy
— Pizza to the Polls (@PizzaToThePolls) November 8, 2018
Pie It Forward By Sharing The Good News With Your Friends On Social Media – Photo by Lildish_ Twitter