Make the missing vote visible
The launch film centered Joaquin's first presidential vote — a civic milestone he was denied by gun violence.
Unfinished Votes
Finish the vote gun violence stole.
Unfinished Votes used AI technology to digitally bring Joaquin Oliver into the 2020 election conversation and ask eligible voters to cast the votes that victims of gun violence never had the chance to make.
LAUNCHED / ACTIVE
2020
40K
voter-replacement goal at launch
2.4M+
reported views in the first 24 hours
1
vote Joaquin never got to cast
CAMPAIGN GALLERY
The work, up close.
WHAT IT IS
Joaquin Oliver would have been old enough to vote in a presidential election for the first time in 2020. Unfinished Votes centered that absence and connected it to the thousands of Americans whose political voices are permanently erased by gun violence.
Working with Joaquin's parents and advanced visual-effects and AI technology, the campaign created a digital message from Joaquin asking viewers to vote because he could not. The campaign then invited people to pledge their vote in honor of a victim of gun violence.
HOW THE IDEA WORKED
Attention is only useful
if it moves somewhere.
CTR initiatives are designed to do more than communicate. Each one creates a path from attention to participation, accountability, remembrance, or action.
Turn attention into a pledge
People were directed to the campaign experience to commit to voting on behalf of Joaquin or another person whose life and future vote were taken.
Personalize the story
The digital experience adapted around individual victims so participation was connected to a real person rather than an abstract statistic.
IMPACT
A voting message that made absence impossible to ignore.
The campaign generated global coverage and millions of views immediately after launch. It went on to receive major creative-industry recognition across film, digital, social, public relations, and innovation categories.
WHY IT STILL MATTERS
Unfinished Votes showed how emerging technology could be used with a family's consent to extend a victim's voice into civic action — not as spectacle, but as a direct request for participation.
CREATED WITH
- Change The Ref
- McCann Health
- Lightfarm
- The Colony
- Bandit
- Yessian / Sonic Union
PERMANENT HOME
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This initiative lives here now.
Original campaign sites may change or go offline over time. ChangeTheRef.org keeps the full story, purpose, and legacy of this initiative accessible in one permanent place.