Tired Hands brewery tells how to cast a ballot with ‘I Voted Today’ beer

This year’s presidential election is expected to have one of the largest voter turnouts in U.S. history. But with the election just over a month away, many Pennsylvanians still have questions about how to properly cast their votes.

Tired Hands Brewing Co. in Ardmore wants to help answer those questions with its new voter initiative, headlined by a new beer called “I Voted Today.”

I Voted Today is a toasty American pale ale brewed by Tired Hands that features a label that doubles as a sticker you can peel off and wear.

“A lot of us aren’t going to be voting in person this year, and we won’t get those nice little ‘I Voted’ stickers that feel so rewarding for doing your civic duty,” said Julie Foster, co-owner of Tired Hands. “Our labels are stickers, so you can peel it off and stick it on your shirt when you cast your ballot this election season.”

Foster said Tired Hands’ campaign seeks to inform Pennsylvanians of how they can cast votes in the November election by providing resources about the many methods available in the state.

“The primary goal with this is to make sure people get out and vote. In Pennsylvania, the last presidential election was a difference of 44,000 votes,” Foster said. “It is complicated this year. There are some things we as voters need to follow up on.”

Because of COVID-19 restrictions, much of the outreach work for the campaign is being done through the brewery’s social media pages.

“For us, it’s a really great opportunity to connect with a large number of individuals and share information about the beer, but more importantly, how and when to vote,” Foster said. “There’s a number of different ways to vote in Pennsylvania this year, and there are also different deadlines to accomplish that.”

Breweries across the country have adopted their own versions of the initiative, Foster said.

“The goal of the campaign is to use our network to communicate voter information by partnering with, I think we have over 40 breweries across the country,” she said.

Tired Hands shared the recipe and can design on its website, encouraging breweries across the country to take up the initiative in their own communities.

Mike DeLancett is head brewer at Hourglass Brewing in Orlando, Florida. Their iteration of the campaign is distributing voter registration information in the vital swing stage.

“With COVID being a significant factor in [Florida], we are trying to help people find as many ways to vote as safely and effectively as possible as well as keeping them informed on what their options are,” he said. “The art variant on our can actually includes all of the deadlines, QR codes to websites, and other pertinent information for voting and getting registered to vote in Florida.”

Foster said all the breweries that participate in the campaign are required to distribute voter registration information in their respective states.

Breweries also are encouraged to donate proceeds from their iterations of I Voted Today pale ale to support nonpartisan get-out-the-vote initiatives such as those of the ACLU and Democracy Works.