Pearl Jam Ramp Up Voting Efforts With ‘PJ Votes 2020′ Initiative
The presidential election is closing in, and Pearl Jam are doing their part to ensure that people are prepared to vote, launching their own "PJ Votes 2020" initiative.
The band has teamed with People for the American Way, Make the Road Pennsylvania and the League of Conservation Voters to provide an avenue via their website where fans can check on their voter registration status, register to vote if they still need to, find their closest polling places, request absentee ballots, investigate election rules and access their official state website.
Part of the initiative includes the band's "Take-Three Pledge," in which they're showing fans how they can vote by mail, asking them to recruit three friends to ensure they're registered to vote and the final step being "Don't wait," as the election is nearing and time is of the essence.
Recently, singer Eddie Vedder joined Instagram and dedicated his earliest posts on the social networking site to showing how easy it is to vote by mail, taking fans through the process as he filled out and sent off his ballot.
“It’s about reminding people that their voice matters and their voice can make a big difference,” bassist Jeff Ament told Rolling Stone. “Like a lot of things, if you find out that your good friends are doing something, you become more curious about it and more invested in it. What we found with voting is that when people you’re living with or your family or your best friends are voting, then you tend to vote as well.”
Pearl Jam had initially planned to route their 2020 tour through key states during this election to support candidates that they believed in, but since the pandemic squashed the ability to tour in 2020, the group has focused their voting efforts elsewhere.
“I don’t know how old the average Pearl Jam fan is, probably 45,” says Ament. “We’re asking Pearl Jam fans to get their three kids to vote and their friends to vote. It’s an opportunity to do something for the first time for a lot of these young kids. It’s their first opportunity to be part of the democracy in this country and have a voice and change things.”
See Pearl Jam in the Most Performed Songs by 50 of Rock's Biggest Acts