“Beyond the Ballot” Voter Registration Events: How Geeks Who Drink Helped Drive Voter Registration

Recently, Geeks Who Drink and USA Today partnered up to host special quiz events across the country. Our goal was to use our signature fun, nonpartisan trivia about the world of politics to get quizzers involved, informed, and motivated to check and update their voter registration status. With the help of GWD’s amazing hosts and representatives from local newsrooms in the USA Today Network, our Beyond the Ballot events were voted a success!

The Quiz

Geeks Who Drink operates in more than 80% of the United States, so we always strive to curate quizzes without the influence of politics—but creating a quiz about politics without politics is a bit trickier. Add to that the challenge of getting quizzers to enjoy a quiz about politics in a society where most of us are dealing with politics fatigue.

The goal was to create a political quiz that took a step back from the current climate, while energizing folks to participate. Obviously, our creative editorial team was more than up for the challenge. 

The Geeks Who Drink writers are masters at sticking to a theme without being too on the nose, so the content still feels fresh while being an hour into the quiz. They employ the right amount of levity and humor to keep the night light, fun, and inclusive. 

Here’s a quick look into the subjects we chose:

• Croc the Vote: A round on animals that have been on ballots.
• I Want My MTVote: A round on memorable Rock the Vote PSAs of the past.
• Democracy in Action: A video round of exciting governance scenes, from the courts Oppenheimer to the Senate of Star Wars. 

The Collaboration

The quizmasters at Geeks Who Drink aren’t just trained on how to run the quiz. We pride ourselves on the lively, welcoming atmosphere of our events, and that’s because our hosts know how to keep things moving and show patrons a good time. For our Beyond the Ballot events, we had the additional help of representatives from local USA Today Network locations: Austin American-Statesman, azcentral, Delaware Online, Democrat and Chronicle, Des Moines Register, and Lansing State Journal. 

The hosts’ powers combined was a dynamite combo. In addition to hosting the quiz and helping folks check their voter registration status, our partners held a raffle for local gift cards & awarded free newsroom subscriptions. Of course, there were plenty of drinks, prizes, and newsroom swag to be won during the quiz!

“The players really enjoyed the prizes,” said the team at Lansing State Journal. “After winning the bonus question, one team member chose an LSJ sports book on Michigan State football… Sports columnist Graham Couch visited his team during a break and autographed the book. It was a fun moment.”

Interacting with our audience was a huge part of the events’ success. Geeks Who Drink prides itself on the community of regulars we build at our quiz nights, and the visiting newsroom representatives didn’t shy away from diving into the crowd to engage with quizzers directly instead of just making announcements.

The Outcome

For both partners, the events were a success. Additional coverage—such as collaborative social posts and online coverage from local newsrooms—went out to more than 650K followers and brought in new quizzers who hadn’t played with us previously. Overall quiz attendance increased by 10% between the six locations we hosted at!

For USA Today, their participation and giveaway directly influenced some pub bystanders into becoming pub players. Emails were collected from more than 50% of quizzers, which is a huge achievement and a testament to how involved our players were.