Rock the vote: Progressive nonprofits, Pearl Jam unite in Missoula to encourage voter participation

By Jen Clancey DIGITAL PRODUCER 

In 70 days, Montanans will head to polls and submit mail-in ballots to decide key elections of local, regional and national officials, including the U.S. president. 

To improve voter turnout, American rock band Pearl Jam partnered with four Montana organizations to register and educate voters at its “Our Village” festival in Missoula. On Thursday, Aug. 22, Pearl Jam hosted the free public event on the green of the University of Montana’s Washington-Grizzly Stadium tailgate area. 

After a six-year hiatus since the band last performed in Missoula, Pearl Jam made use of this election year to encourage activism and voting. “Our Village” festival partnered with four organizations in a “Pledge to Vote” initiative: Forward Montana, Montana Conservation Voters, Planned Parenthood Advocates of Montana and Western Native Voice.  

Each nonprofit organization has different goals and methods per the communities they serve, but organizers were united under the objective to engage voters.

For Danae Yellowkidney, field manager with Western Native Voice, the more urban environment of Missoula is different than her typical field. Yellowkidney works primarily with the Blackfeet Indian community through outreach like tabling and assisting in resources such as free ballot pick up and free rides to polling locations. She said the biggest challenge in civic engagement in Native communities is voter registration. 

“We have just a lot of generational trauma with getting people to sign pieces of paper from the government, and so we’re just out there reminding them that this is safe,” Yellowkidney said. “This piece of paper isn’t going to harm them. It’s not going to take anything away.” 

“It’s going to empower their voice, so that they have people in places of power that are going to be held accountable for Indian country, and that our voices are heard just as much as anybody else here in the United States,” Yellowkidney continued. 

She acknowledged that voter participation is low within her own age group, 18-29 years of age. “I’m really hoping that we get our young people interested in voting so that they carry it on through their whole life.”

Yellowkidney’s hopes align with Forward Montana, a nonprofit aimed at improving civic engagement in Montana’s young people. John Bazant, the organization’s Missoula office and field coordinator, believes that the young peoples’ vote could have a huge impact on November elections. 

“I think that if youth voters voted at the same rate as older generations, they would decide every election, especially in Montana,” Bazant said. He’s found that apathy and the idea of not knowing enough can be a challenge in some youth voters.

“It can be so very intimidating,” Bazant said about the voting process, which Forward Montana has worked to streamline through a step-by-step Voter Hub on their website. 

Montana Conservation Voters’ Executive Director Whitney Tawney noted that the ballots are packed with consequential roles this year, from the Montana Supreme Court to U.S. Senate candidates. She commended Pearl Jam’s willingness to host an initiative to support participation in the political process.

“People are really nervous these days to be able to stick their neck out and say something, right?” 

“I love the fact that we also have Jeff Ament, our own rock star from Big Sandy, Montana, who really cares about the state and wants to make sure that it’s protected for the next generations,” Tawney said. She’s been a Pearl Jam fan since her brother used to drive her around in his van, with a sound system redesigned to play loud music by rock bands like Pearl Jam.  

Donning a Pearl Jam baseball cap, Quinn Leighton, the director of external affairs for Planned Parenthood Montana and PP Advocates of Montana, attended the Pearl Jam concert later that night. 

Just two days earlier on Tuesday, Aug. 19, Leighton learned that a ballot initiative to protect reproductive rights in the Montana Constitution would appear on ballots in November. Ballot initiative CI-128 received 117,000 signatures from every county in Montana—“the most signatures submitted on any initiative ever,” according to Leighton.

“I mean, it’s incredibly exciting,” Leighton said. “I think that Montanans have really shown that this is incredibly important to them … People want to vote on this.”

Leighton and their team spent the day registering voters at “Our Village,” even running out of buttons, given as “thank yous” for registering to vote. 

“Everyone needs to vote because there’s so much at stake,” Leighton said. “And so I really hope that people do vote and understand that a lot of fundamental human rights are at stake … we just need to get the right people elected, and we need to get this ballot initiative across the finish line.”

Montana Poet Laureate Chris LaTray and his band American Falcon laid a metal soundtrack to end the festival, signifying that the Pearl Jam concert gates would soon open.  

In the parking lot, Pearl Jam fans lined up for the night’s big event. Elevated above the maroon end zone with “Grizzlies” painted in white, Pearl Jam at last eyed the 8 p.m. crowd. Lead singer Eddie Vedder gave a shout out to Sen. Jon Tester, who for the past two days held his “Rock on with Jon” fundraiser in Missoula. The concert was not a fundraiser for, or directly affiliated with Tester, but some campaign ticket packages granted buyers access to both the Q&A event on Wednesday night and the Pearl Jam concert.

Vedder added that everyone has a purpose, “especially between now and election day,” continuing the conversations that happened at “Our Village” festival. He included that he was excited about everyone showing up for each other that night, some Montana residents offering camping spots on their land. 

“I guess that’s how they do it in Montana,” Vedder said. The band moved into the rest of their set. Fans lifted cell phone flashlights to the sky during “Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town.” 

Election season is nearing the finish line, and advocates will remain engaged until the final hour of polls and mail-in ballots in November. For people who pledged to vote, they will receive reminders as the countdown wanes.