Billy Eichner Teams With Human Rights Campaign, Funny or Die for Early Vote Tour

By Ted Johnson

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – WASHINGTON — Billy Eichner, the Human Rights Campaign, and Funny or Die are teaming up for a tour to promote early voting in states with a focus on LGBTQ equality.

Eichner, the host of “Billy on the Street,” will join HRC President Chad Griffin in Phoenix on Oct. 13, Las Vegas on Oct. 20 snd Milwaukee on Oct. 27. The events are being co-sponsored by Funny or Die, which has a campaign called Glam Up the Midterms to encourage young people to get to the polls.

HRC said that it has identified 52 million “equality voters,” those who will make “issues of equality a deciding factor” in their vote, in addition to 10 million LGBTQ voters. The purpose of the events is to encourage early voting in those locales.

HRC said that it has made a priority of organizing and spending in Arizona, Nevada and Wisconsin, in what it calls its largest such push in its history.

The Phoenix event will take place at Tempe Improv, and the Milwaukee event will take place at the student union at the University of Wisconsin. The venue for the Las Vegas event is to be announced.

Industry figures have been engaged in a flurry of get-out-the-vote efforts in recent weeks, with plans to visit states with competitive races, along with appearances in a number of videos.

A coalition of progressive organizations this week unveiled a video series called the Last Call for the Last Weekend , with the goal of signing up volunteers to canvass and work on get-out-the-vote efforts and campaigns in the last days before the election. The video features Kerry Washington, Hillary Clinton, Elizabeth Warren, and Anna Wintour, and it is sponsored by more than 60 progressive groups including MoveOn, Indivisible, and Emily’s List.