No Kings rallies swap protest marches for walks to the polls as thousands of events push early voting

Thousands of No Kings events popped up across the United States on Saturday with a different goal than the giant marches that came before them. Instead of filling streets with protest signs, organizers asked people to make a plan to vote early in the Nov. 3 midterm elections. In many towns that meant walking to a polling place together.

A protest movement turns to the ballot box

This was the fourth national No Kings day since President Donald Trump returned to the White House. Organizers listed more than 3,000 local actions and called them nonpartisan, even though the movement was born out of opposition to his administration. Earlier rounds drew enormous crowds. Organizers put turnout at about five million people in June 2025 and about seven million in October 2025. A third round in March brought more than 3,000 demonstrations after the U.S. began military operations against Iran.

Organizers expected smaller crowds this time and said the real test will come when states release their early vote counts. Their stated aim is turnout so large that the result would be hard for anyone to question. Partner groups include the ACLU, the American Federation of Teachers, Black Voters Matter Fund, Indivisible, MoveOn, Public Citizen and Voto Latino.

Superheroes, tailgates and a band at the Lincoln Memorial

Many of the gatherings looked more like block parties than rallies. At the Lincoln Memorial in Washington a band played for a few hundred people in winter coats and caps. Some danced through the chill while others held up signs that read "VOTE EARLY" and "HANDS OFF MY VOTE!"

In downtown Phoenix marchers planned to carry their own ballots to the Maricopa County election center. Chester, Pennsylvania, held a tailgate next to a ballot drop box. Voters in the Detroit suburb of Ferndale and in Colorado's Eagle County dressed up as superheroes and rode decorated bikes and wagons to cast their votes.

Outside the Florida Capitol in Tallahassee a group called the Eyeball Brigade wore giant papier-mache eyeballs on their heads with the message "Eyes Are Watching." Organizer Doug Schrock said the point was to keep watch on democracy, voting rights and ICE. A few hundred people rang cowbells and waved flags outside the elections office in Sarasota, where Voices for Florida Fund director Sarah Parker said everyone deserves a fair vote no matter their party.

Atlanta: be a superhero and vote

In Atlanta, where early voting runs Oct. 13 through Oct. 30, Black Voters Matter threw a party with music and food trucks before the crowd headed to a polling site as a group. City Councilman Michael Julian Bond told people the vote is the one power the Constitution gives them and they should not hand it over. "You don't see Black Panther giving up his power," he said before urging the crowd to go to the polls.

In Dallas, Teresa Cox of the Texas Organizing Project pushed Texans to vote as soon as early voting opens in the state on Monday. In South Bend, Indiana, people circled the Studebaker Electric Fountain in Leeper Park. One of them, Anne Weisjohn, said voting now feels like the only power ordinary citizens have left.

The fight over ballots

The White House brushed off the organizers this week by saying that a movement focused on voting proves there is no king. Lisa Gilbert, co-president of Public Citizen, said steering people to the polls was a strategic choice because voting is the most direct power they have.

The day of action lands in the middle of a growing clash over mail ballots. Trump has long distrusted mail voting and has claimed without evidence that fraud cost him the 2020 election. On Thursday his administration sued California election officials to block the state from counting mail ballots from people the federal government calls "likely" noncitizens until their status is confirmed. On Friday the Justice Department warned that local officials who count ballots from suspected noncitizens could face criminal investigation.

Democratic Sens. Alex Padilla of California, Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island and Dick Durbin of Illinois wrote to Attorney General Todd Blanche on Friday asking the department to promise it will not seize ballots or other election materials before results are certified. Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 3, but most states let voters cast a ballot days or even weeks ahead of time.