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| Lingam James (AKA: Infinite Spins) |
[Repost from StarNews; by John Staton, October 25, 2024]
If you plan on voting in the Wilmington area Nov. 5, casting your ballot might come with a sweet soundtrack.
DJs at the Polls, a national, non-partisan get-out-the-vote group, said it will have paid, professional DJs spinning tunes outside of about 85 polling places in New Hanover, Brunswick and Pender counties on Election Day.
Chris Suggs, a state project manager in North Carolina for DJs at the Polls, said the group plans to have DJs at 1,365 voting sites around the state.
It will be the group's first time placing DJs at polling sites in the Wilmington area. Suggs said DJs at the Polls ran a "pilot project" in North Carolina in 2022 and 2023, but that "the level of coordination is definitely new this year. This is the first year we've reached this level of engagement."
The idea, Suggs said, "is to make election day a fun and enjoyable event," thereby increasing voter participation, which is the group's primary goal.
"We don't care how people vote," Suggs said. "We just want them to get out and vote."
As for the polling sites where DJs at the Polls will be set up, "Some are random," Suggs said, while other are picked because the precincts have high numbers of voters the group targets. Suggs said these include young voters, Black and brown communities, and what Suggs called "low-propensity voters" who vote sometimes but not always.
Suggs said some voters in the Wilmington area will be getting postcards letting them know a DJ will be at their polling site.
According to the DJs at the Polls website, the group's founder, Anton Moore of Philadelphia, started placing DJs at polling locations throughout Pennsylvania in 2008. Moore "helped design and implement DJs 4 Obama" in 2012, and later started DJs at the Polls as a non-partisan group.
The group's website said it "was founded on the belief that voting is something to be celebrated. It was expanded on evidence that having DJs play polling places measurably increases voter turnout."
The group cites a "2022 randomized control trial in Philadelphia at polling sites where our DJs performed." At those sites, "voter turnout increased 3%" over previous years. DJs at the Polls said it targets "densely populated urban areas with large numbers of underrepresented voters."
Nancy Friedman, deputy director of DJs at the Polls, said the group will have DJs outside some seven dozen polling places in New Hanover, Brunswick and Pender counties, including the Career Readiness Academy at Mosely PLC in Wilmington, Lincoln Elementary School in Leland, and North Topsail Elementary School in Hampstead.
A full list of participating DJs in the Wilmington area wasn't immediately provided to the StarNews.
Friedman said "we haven't yet completed the matching process of DJs to locations, but we will have all of that completed by the end of the week."
Wilmington DJ James Tritten of Fort Lowell Records said he will be spinning on Election Day, though he said he hasn't yet been told where.
Another Wilmington DJ you might see at the polls is Lingam James, who DJs under the handle Infinite Spins. You can catch him spinning vinyl every Wednesday evening at Mad Mole Brewing off Oleander Drive as well as at other locations, including Satellite, Palate, and various spots in the Cargo District.
[Lingam] James said that DJs at the Polls reached out to him about participating, and that it was something he wanted to do because "it would open me up to another audience, and hopefully improve the mood" at the polls, he said. "Voting is something we're tasked with as Americans, so I'm glad I can do my part to hopefully make it a more pleasant experience."
[Lingam] James said he already cast his vote early, and that "it was a little tense in line. This will definitely help cut the tension."
If you see Infinite Spins at your polling place, he said you can expect to hear "a lot of funk, soul, disco, jazz, hip-hop, just some upbeat stuff that anyone can chill to." He said he also imports a lot of rare vinyl records into his digital set-up, and looks forward to playing those as well.
According to DJs at the Polls, DJs are paid $500 per four-hour set. Sites will host between one and three four-hour DJ sets, with some DJs performing multiple sets.
Suggs said "we are very intentional about the DJs we recruit." The group targets professional DJs who gig regularly. Some might work on local radio while others are what Suggs called "celebrity DJs."
The DJs "know their communities best," Suggs said, including what kind of music their communities want to hear. The group just asks that they play "family friendly" music that is "respectful" to the polling place, which might be at a school or church.
Suggs said DJs at the Polls is funded by many different private donors and foundations, including Focus for Democracy, a nonprofit, non-partisan civic engagement group that its website says is "dedicated to empowering donors to make the most impactful contributions possible to strengthen democracy."
So far, the group will be placing DJs in "13 states and counting," Suggs said.
Some states, like Georgia, have passed laws restricting activity near polling sites. In that state, for example, it's illegal to even give food or water to people waiting in line to vote.
In North Carolina, Suggs said, "we've been very well-received" by everyone from politicians to community organizers and "we haven't run into any issues at all" with local boards of elections.
"They realize this is a non-partisan activity," he said. "In my work of doing this, there are always critics, but we've not run into any opposition that would make us stop what we're doing."
DJs at the Polls, a national, non-partisan get-out-the-vote group, said it will have paid, professional DJs spinning tunes outside of about 85 polling places in New Hanover, Brunswick and Pender counties on Election Day.
Chris Suggs, a state project manager in North Carolina for DJs at the Polls, said the group plans to have DJs at 1,365 voting sites around the state.
It will be the group's first time placing DJs at polling sites in the Wilmington area. Suggs said DJs at the Polls ran a "pilot project" in North Carolina in 2022 and 2023, but that "the level of coordination is definitely new this year. This is the first year we've reached this level of engagement."
The idea, Suggs said, "is to make election day a fun and enjoyable event," thereby increasing voter participation, which is the group's primary goal.
"We don't care how people vote," Suggs said. "We just want them to get out and vote."
As for the polling sites where DJs at the Polls will be set up, "Some are random," Suggs said, while other are picked because the precincts have high numbers of voters the group targets. Suggs said these include young voters, Black and brown communities, and what Suggs called "low-propensity voters" who vote sometimes but not always.
Suggs said some voters in the Wilmington area will be getting postcards letting them know a DJ will be at their polling site.
According to the DJs at the Polls website, the group's founder, Anton Moore of Philadelphia, started placing DJs at polling locations throughout Pennsylvania in 2008. Moore "helped design and implement DJs 4 Obama" in 2012, and later started DJs at the Polls as a non-partisan group.
The group's website said it "was founded on the belief that voting is something to be celebrated. It was expanded on evidence that having DJs play polling places measurably increases voter turnout."
The group cites a "2022 randomized control trial in Philadelphia at polling sites where our DJs performed." At those sites, "voter turnout increased 3%" over previous years. DJs at the Polls said it targets "densely populated urban areas with large numbers of underrepresented voters."
Nancy Friedman, deputy director of DJs at the Polls, said the group will have DJs outside some seven dozen polling places in New Hanover, Brunswick and Pender counties, including the Career Readiness Academy at Mosely PLC in Wilmington, Lincoln Elementary School in Leland, and North Topsail Elementary School in Hampstead.
A full list of participating DJs in the Wilmington area wasn't immediately provided to the StarNews.
Friedman said "we haven't yet completed the matching process of DJs to locations, but we will have all of that completed by the end of the week."
Wilmington DJ James Tritten of Fort Lowell Records said he will be spinning on Election Day, though he said he hasn't yet been told where.
Another Wilmington DJ you might see at the polls is Lingam James, who DJs under the handle Infinite Spins. You can catch him spinning vinyl every Wednesday evening at Mad Mole Brewing off Oleander Drive as well as at other locations, including Satellite, Palate, and various spots in the Cargo District.
[Lingam] James said that DJs at the Polls reached out to him about participating, and that it was something he wanted to do because "it would open me up to another audience, and hopefully improve the mood" at the polls, he said. "Voting is something we're tasked with as Americans, so I'm glad I can do my part to hopefully make it a more pleasant experience."
[Lingam] James said he already cast his vote early, and that "it was a little tense in line. This will definitely help cut the tension."
If you see Infinite Spins at your polling place, he said you can expect to hear "a lot of funk, soul, disco, jazz, hip-hop, just some upbeat stuff that anyone can chill to." He said he also imports a lot of rare vinyl records into his digital set-up, and looks forward to playing those as well.
According to DJs at the Polls, DJs are paid $500 per four-hour set. Sites will host between one and three four-hour DJ sets, with some DJs performing multiple sets.
Suggs said "we are very intentional about the DJs we recruit." The group targets professional DJs who gig regularly. Some might work on local radio while others are what Suggs called "celebrity DJs."
The DJs "know their communities best," Suggs said, including what kind of music their communities want to hear. The group just asks that they play "family friendly" music that is "respectful" to the polling place, which might be at a school or church.
Suggs said DJs at the Polls is funded by many different private donors and foundations, including Focus for Democracy, a nonprofit, non-partisan civic engagement group that its website says is "dedicated to empowering donors to make the most impactful contributions possible to strengthen democracy."
So far, the group will be placing DJs in "13 states and counting," Suggs said.
Some states, like Georgia, have passed laws restricting activity near polling sites. In that state, for example, it's illegal to even give food or water to people waiting in line to vote.
In North Carolina, Suggs said, "we've been very well-received" by everyone from politicians to community organizers and "we haven't run into any issues at all" with local boards of elections.
"They realize this is a non-partisan activity," he said. "In my work of doing this, there are always critics, but we've not run into any opposition that would make us stop what we're doing."
