From primaries earlier this year to early voting in recent weeks and the General Election on November 5, museums of all types and sizes are opening their doors for community members to have a welcoming and safe place to cast their ballots.

For those who vote there, it can be a unique experience. While casting their ballots, voters can find themselves among famed art, giant whales, or other exhibition installations—including on the topics of civics and participating in our democracy.

Plus, voters may get complimentary museum admission for voting or even leave with a special sticker: “I Voted – At The Museum.”

85% of US adults think museums have a role to play in building our civil society.

Source: 2023 broader population sampling of U.S. adults (AAM-Wilkening Consulting)

Though voting at museums is not new this year, it has gained new participants this year and museums are increasingly becoming known for their role as civic spaces. Some museums have to overcome and solve substantial challenges in order to ready the museum, staff, and logistics matters involved in being a polling place. In 2020, dozens of museums stepped up to fill a perceived gap: there needed to be more safe places for voting during the COVID-19 pandemic. That year, several museums were a first-time voting site, while others continued their tradition of serving polling locations at mid-term elections, presidential elections, or both for years.

How can museums participate?

As nonpartisan institutions, museums can (and are encouraged!) to participate in these allowed voter activities during election years. In addition to serving as a polling site, there are other options: hosting events registering people to vote, sharing timely information about voting times and locations, publicizing information on election day, and even hosting a nonpartisan forum that includes all viable candidates and parties participating in a given race. For example, the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia hosted the Presidential Debate on September 10.

There are also important restrictions. Nonprofit 501(c)(3) museums cannot treat any candidate or party differently from all other candidates or parties, share information more favorable to any candidate or party over the other, nor a number of other prohibited activities. Read the additional resources section at the end of this blog post for thorough resources and guidelines.

Explore a highlight roundup of museums participating as voting sites in 2024 below! Jump to list by location.

Is your museum participating as a polling site, or participating in any other permitted voter activity this year? Let us know in the comments!

A new site to meet community needs in NYC:

The American Museum of Natural History in Manhattan’s Upper West Side is a polling location for the first time this year! Early voting has been underway at the museum’s newest wing, the Richard Gilder Center for Science, Education and Innovation. Earlier, community members requested the museum be an early voting site to relieve logistical concerns at a nearby public school that would be impacted by the Early Voting days.

 

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“For the first time, AMNH proudly serves as a polling location, supporting part of Manhattan’s west side—a true reflection of our role as a civic resource.”
– Sean Decatur, President of AMNH

Continuing a historical legacy of voting rights:

One of the most prominent new museum polling locations this year has a unique significance in voting and civil rights history.

The National Susan B. Anthony Museum & House—the home where Anthony lived, and was arrested in 1872 for voting in the presidential election—proudly served this year as first-time polling site. Because of its special significance, many voters opted to travel farther from suburbs to cast their ballots early there.

The museum first had the idea to be a polling site in 2020, when New York introduced early voting in presidential elections. However, with limited occupancy inside the house itself, the staff needed to overcome obstacles and requirements to be a ready voting location, including making necessary access changes to the adjoining carriage house, which is where early voters now go to vote. Learn more about the museum’s work to become a polling site, and its significance.

Big 10 university museums join an innovative voting project:

The Creative Campus Voting Project is an effort across university museums of Big 10 state universities to close the gap between young voters who are registered and those who actually cast their ballots. Learn about this project through the lens of students and museum employees at the University of Michigan Museum of Art in this 7-minute piece from PBS: Universities transform art museums into spaces for voting and political discourse. In a year when it is the first time that Michigan voters can vote early and in-person, the museum is proud to provide a safe and welcoming civic environment. The museum transformed one of its galleries into a fully functional City Clerk’s office to allow registration, absentee ballot requests, and early voting for Ann Arbor voters.

“It means something to be a public institution. It means something to … have public goods like museums and libraries. They’re not a given. They do really important, really critically important work for the civil society and the democracy, even if it’s often kind of invisible to people. I think it’s worth naming, so that you can really protect it.”
– Christina Olsen, Director, University of Michigan Museum of Art

Early voting pop-up at a museum breaks state records:

In 2024, Minneapolis’ Elections and Voter Services is holding 11 one-day pop-up voting events at churches, parks and a museum. The first pop-up was at the Weisman Art Museum at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis and attracted a long line of voters. City spokesman Allen Henry said 637 people voted at the art museum in one early voting day—a “new record for pop-up voting not just for the city, but the entire state of Minnesota.” This year’s election also marks the first time Minnesota college students could vote early on college campuses, after a 2023 law passed by the state legislature allowed for such pop-up locations.

The early voting pop-up site was organized by the Row the Vote campaign, a nonpartisan effort led by the Undergraduate Student Government, which has also spent the past few months visiting classrooms, registering students, and sharing voter information.

Museums that are repeat voting locations:

Along with these first-time polling places, many museums are returning after participating in past elections. Here are a few highlights:

The Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles, the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, the National WWI Museum & Memorial in Kansas City, MO, and many other museums will serve as early voting or Election Day polling locations again this year. In 2020, when the WWI Museum & Memorial served as a polling location, it responded promptly to an incident in which graffiti was used to attempt to deter people from voting. Earlier this year, the museum served as a polling location for the primary elections:

The Hammer Museum at UCLA has been a polling location multiple times. Ann Philbin, the museum’s director, said in 2020 that museums “are the new town centres, community hubs and meetings halls, and it is critical to our mission to be a place where people can participate in democracy.”

The Frost Museum, while serving again as an early voting location, this year, offers voters a free admission ticket to use through November 22, café and gift store discounts, and a discount on museum membership.

“Partnering with Miami-Dade County on this important initiative reinforces our commitment to civic engagement, ensuring that every resident can participate in the democratic process in an accessible and welcoming space.”
– Doug Roberts, Frost’s President and CEO

In Boston, the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) is participating again as an early voting location, and the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) is a first-time voting location. Mayor Michelle Wu hopes that voters will share their excitement about voting at these cultural locations:

 

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Voter education and registration:

Many museums are offering timely civics education, from special exhibitions to programming related to voting or civic activities:

• The WVU Art Museum’s Museum Education Center is an early voting center and hosting the Our Votes, Our Values exhibit.
• At least several museums this year, such as the Lewisburg Children’s Museum in Lewisburg, PA, have been organizing educational events to get younger audiences interested in the civics process.
• Penn State’s Palmer Museum of Art offered voter registration opportunities while presenting the exhibition, Politics and Daily Life.
• Munson Museum of Art, in Utica, NY is an Election Day polling location, and also currently hosts the traveling exhibition, Voices and Votes: Democracy in America, organized by the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.

“’Voices and Votes’ stresses the personal experience of democracy. For example, at each venue, community members record their individual observations about what democracy means to them, animating real life events such as becoming a citizen and gaining the right to vote.”
– April Oswald, Munson Museum Education Director

Some voters find their ballot box at the museum:

Instead of serving as full-blown polling sites, some museums are hosting drop boxes on their grounds where voters can leave their ballots to be counted. The Denver Museum of Nature & Science and Denver Botanic Gardens in Colorado, the Computer History Museum in California, and others have hosted ballot drop boxes in 2024. Plus, voters dropping off their ballot might stop in for a visit to the museum!

Museums as polling locations in 2024, by state

Is your museum serving as a polling site, or participating in any other permitted voter activity this year? This is not an exhaustive list, and we welcome additional examples in the comments.

Alabama

• Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts (link)

Arizona

• Phoenix Art Museum (link)
• The Museum or Northern Arizona (link)

California

• The California Museum – early voting location (link) and voter registration (link)
• Triton Museum of Art – early voting and Election Day voting location (link)
• The Hammer Museum at UCLA – early voting and Election Day voting location (link)
• Skirball Cultural Center (link)
• South Coast Botanic Garden (link)
• San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) – Phyllis Wattis Theater (link)
• Randall Museum (link)
• California Historical Radio Society (link)
• Mountain View Computer History Museum – ballot drop box location (link)

Florida

• The Phillip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science (link and link)
• Florida Museum of Natural History (link)
• Harn Museum of Art (link)

Georgia

• High Museum of Art (link)

Massachusetts

• Museum of Fine Arts – first-time early voting location (link)
• Institute of Contemporary Art – early voting location (link)
• Wenham Museum – Election Day voting location (link)

Michigan

• University of Michigan Museum of Art (UMMA) – (link)

Minnesota

• The Bakken Museum – Election Day polling location (link)
• Weisman Art Museum at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis was a one-day pop-up early voting location site (link)

Missouri

• National WWI Museum and Memorial is an Election Day polling location (link)

Nebraska

• York Area Children’s Museum (link)
• The Sheldon Museum of Art at the University of Nebraska – voter registration (link, link, and link) and an exhibition/voter education (link)

New Jersey

• The Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University (link)
• Hoboken Historical Museum (link)

New York

• American Museum of Natural History (link)
• Brooklyn Museum – early voting location (link and link)
• Lincoln Depot Museum (link)
• Metropolitan Museum of Art (link)
• Munson (link)
• Museum of the Moving Image (MoMI) (link)
• Queens Botanical Garden (link)
• Susan B. Anthony House & Museum (link and link)
• Weeksville Heritage Center – first-time early voting location (link)

North Carolina

• Charlotte Hawkins Brown Museum – early voting location (link)
• Onslow County Museum – early voting location (link)

Ohio

• Miami Valley Veterans Museum – first-time voting location (link)

Oklahoma

• Philbrook – first-time voting location in a presidential race (link)

Pennsylvania

• Museum of the American Revolution – Cross Keys Café – Election Day polling location (link)
• The Mummers Museum – voting location for the 2024 primary elections (link)
• Penn State’s Palmer Museum of Art – voter registration activities (link)

South Carolina

• The Historical Center of York County – voter education exhibition (link)

Virginia

• Museum of History and Culture (link)
• VCU Institute for Contemporary Art (link)

West Virginia

• WVU Art Museum – the Museum Education Center was an early voting location and hosted the “Our Votes, Our Values” exhibit (link and link)

Wisconsin

• The Chazen Museum of Art at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (link and link)

Additional resources

American Alliance of Museums (AAM):

• Guide to Election Year Advocacy for Museums
• Nonprofit Voter Resources

Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS):

• How Museums and Libraries Are Fostering Civic Engagement Through Voting

American Association for State and Local History (AASLH):

• Technical Leaflet: How Museums Can Help Increase Voter Registration
• Here’s why your museum should get out the vote

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Is your museum participating as a polling site, or participating in any other permitted voter activity this year? Let us know in the comments.