Some central Ohio voters will hear tunes outside their polling locations on Tuesday.
The nonpartisan initiative DJs at the Polls will have local disc jockeys at 56 polling locations in Columbus and Reynoldsburg on Election Day.
Isaac David of Columbus, also known as DJ ISD, said he knows that voters may feel intimidated after seeing so many political ads this year. He wants the polls to feel welcoming.
"I would love to see people excited, especially coming in just happy to hear music and happy to just be able to exercise their right to vote," David said.
David will be playing pop and anything that keeps people "energized" at Blackburn Community Center Tuesday morning and The King Arts Complex in the afternoon. Both are on the Near East Side in Columbus.
"One thing I love about DJs is they know how to connect people. They know how create a vibe. If you're feeling down, the DJs can make you get up and lose yourself for about an hour or two," said Anton Moore, who started DJs at the Polls in 2009 in Philadelphia.
Moore said he initially found voting boring. He thought putting a DJ outside of a polling location would make people want to vote.
This election, DJs at the Polls is paying around 2,000 DJs to play at 5,000 polling locations in 24 states.
Ohio made the cut because of its major contested races, Moore said.
"We try to send our DJs to places where it's big races. And Ohio happened to be one of them," Moore said.
Ohio's governor's race between Republican Vivek Ramaswamy and Democrat Dr. Amy Acton has made national and international headlines for its deeply personal attack ads and heavy spending. The Cook Political Report currently rates the race as "leans Democrat."
A race for U.S. Senate between incumbent Republican Jon Husted and Democratic former senator Sherrod Brown remains too close to call.
Moore hopes having DJs at some polling locations in the state will spur voter turnout.
"I'd like some people to understand what's at stake. You know what I mean?" Moore said. "There's a lot of things going on in the world right now and we need people to be involved. We need people to vote and I think that's important."
In addition to Columbus, DJs will pump up the jams in Cleveland, Cincinnati, Dayton, Toledo and Akron. In all, DJs at the Polls has hired about 270 Ohioans, a spokesperson said.
