The next in the “No Kings” series of nationwide protests against the Trump administration’s policies and executive overreach, amid fears of democratic backsliding, happens on Saturday. Unlike past such demonstrations in East Hampton Town, in which people gathered outside Town Hall to listen to speakers before holding signs along Pantigo Road, the theme of Saturday’s gathering is “Vote Early.”
“No Kings” rallies were held in East Hampton and across the country in June and October of 2025 and in March of this year, when an estimated eight million people attended more than 3,300 of them around the world.
“Our elections are under attack,” according to the “No Kings” website. “On October 17th, we defend our rights. We’re fueling the largest early vote in the history of our Republic. Because in America, power belongs to the people -- not wannabe kings.”
“This time, we’re protesting by voting,” according to the progressive political action and advocacy organization MoveOn, one of the groups doing the coordinating. “We’re turning out voters early, helping neighbors cast their ballots, and connecting folks directly to local election protection work that will continue through Election Day.”
“Billionaires bankroll voter suppression because they know people power at the ballot box is the one thing their money can’t buy,” Justin Strekal of the grassroots political organization the People United wrote in a Monday email encouraging people to attend a protest, vote early, and, if early voting has yet to begin where they live, check their registration status, confirm the polling location, and help someone else do the same. “Vote early, and your voice is locked in before anyone can mess with it. Vote early, and you have time to fix anything that goes wrong. Vote early, and the tricks run out.”
In East Hampton, volunteers will distribute information outside supermarkets and other locations around the town, said Katherine Stahl of People for Democracy East Hampton, a chapter of the Indivisible movement. “We’re fanning out, saying ‘vote early,’ and handing out fliers” with information on how to register to vote, deadlines for registration and receipt of absentee ballots from the Suffolk County Board of Elections, and early voting sites, dates, and times, she said last week.
As of yesterday, volunteers plan to be at locations including the I.G.A. supermarkets in Amagansett and East Hampton; Stop & Shop in East Hampton; Main Street in front of Amagansett Square; the James Lane Street Fair in East Hampton Village; the post offices in East Hampton and Southampton, and the One Stop Market in East Hampton.
There will also be rallies on Saturday, including outside Suffolk County Supreme Court in Riverhead.
Early voting starts on Oct. 24 and concludes on Nov. 1. In East Hampton Town, the early voting site is Community Room 2 at Windmill Village, at 219 Accabonac Road in East Hampton. In Southampton, the site is the gymnasium on the Stony Brook Southampton campus at 70 Tuckahoe Road. Election Day is Nov. 3.
The latest “No Kings” actions come against a backdrop of anxiety and uncertainty around the country. In a national survey conducted last month by the Center for Transparent and Trusted Elections at the University of California at San Diego’s School of Social Sciences, just 49 percent of Americans said they expect the midterm elections to be free and fair. Twenty-three percent said they would not be, and 28 percent said they did not know.
Forty percent of those surveyed thought it likely that federal immigration officers would be present at polling places, and 50 percent thought partisan poll watchers would be. “This uncertainty about what used to be taken for granted in the United States reflects an array of concerns about elections,” according to the center.
President Trump has repeated hundreds of times the false claim that the 2020 election was “rigged,” according to The New York Times. He also asserts, without evidence, that Democrats allow undocumented immigrants to vote in elections and that mail-in ballots result in fraudulent outcomes, although he regularly votes by mail himself. The president, The Times reported on Friday, has cast doubt on elections on 440 days of his second term.
At the Republican midterm convention last month, the president had those attending pledge “that I will go out with my family, my friends, I’ll do it any way, I don’t care if I’m registered or not, I’m gonna try and cheat like hell, like [Democrats] do.”
In a video released this month, however, he urged Republicans to vote early, by mail, or in person on Election Day.
