Blue Point Wants You to Mail Your Cans to Congress to Make Election Day a Holiday

Blue Point Brewing Company really wants everyone to vote in this November’s midterm elections, and it’s willing to use its own IPA to nudge us toward our designated polling places. It has repeatedly shared voter registration links on its Facebook page, and has promised to give a free pint to anyone who shows their “I Voted” sticker at its Patchogue, New York, tasting room. It has made Election Day a company-wide holiday, to ensure that its own employees to have enough time to vote. And it’s willing to take a shit-ton of empty beer cans to Congress, in an attempt to get the men and women in charge to make Election Day a Federal holiday, so everyone can make their way to the polls.

Of course Blue Point has launched its own Change.org petition for the cause, but it has also printed an abridged version on the side of every can of Voters’ Day Off IPA—and it’s encouraging its customers to sign it at the bottom, then mail the empties to the Senate. (But please, for the sake of the Postal Service, use appropriate packaging).

“We the people believe that voting is heart and soul of democracy,” each can reads. “But just like brewing good beer, voting takes time. Nearly 60% of voting-eligible Americans did not vote in the last midterm elections, citing work or school-related conflicts as the primary cause.”

Blue Point, which is owned by Anheuser-Busch InBev, is right about voter turnout: only 37 percent of eligible voters turned out for the midterm elections in 2014. That was the lowest number of voters seen (or not seen) for the midterms since World War II.

“With low-turnout, the broad public opinion on issues fails to be represented, as campaign strategies and ground games target a limited number of base voters that can more easily turn elections in their favor,” Nonprofit VOTE wrote in its analysis of that election. “It contributes to a more polarized politics and leaves out the important voices of youth or new citizens who are disproportionately overlooked by campaigns and not encouraged to participate.”

According to Nonprofit VOTE, the most significant decrease in voter turnout was in the under-40 demographic. Their participation dropped from having a 36 percent share in the total voter electorate in 2012 to a dismal 26 percent in 2014. (So come on, under-40s—if beer companies, Taylor Swift and socially conscious rickrolling can’t get our attention, WHAT FUCKING CAN?!)