Mark Ruffalo Joins Navajo Nation in Voter Turnout Campaign for 2024 Election

Mark Ruffalo is taking steps—literally—to ensure Native American voices are heard in the upcoming 2024 presidential election. The 56-year-old actor visited the Navajo Nation on Saturday, Oct. 12, to join a Walk to the Polls event, an effort aimed at increasing voter turnout among young Indigenous people. Partnering with Protect the Sacred, Ruffalo and members of the Diné (Navajo) community walked three miles to a ballot drop box, marking the occasion by honoring 100 years of Native American citizenship and reflecting on the Navajo Long Walk, the tragic displacement of the Diné people in the 1860s.

Allie Redhorse Young, the Diné activist who founded Protect the Sacred, explained that the goal is to encourage record voter turnout among young Native Americans, despite the challenges they face. “We still have to travel long distances, sometimes 45 minutes to an hour, just to register or cast a ballot,” she noted. “In 2024, we still don’t have solutions for this.”

Ruffalo, though not Native American himself, has long been involved with Indigenous communities through his environmental activism. He told *PEOPLE* that he believes change happens when people make their voices heard. “We’re on the verge of having our first Native female governor,” he said, citing progress in Indigenous representation, like Deb Haaland’s historic role as Secretary of the Interior. “That comes from voting.”

The Walk to the Polls event is part of a broader effort called Ride to the Polls, a civic engagement campaign aimed at helping Indigenous communities overcome the barriers they face in voting. Ruffalo, along with fellow actor Wilmer Valderrama and Native American actress Cara Jade Myers, joined the walk to encourage young voters to use their voices despite a system that has often failed them. “The bad guys want you to not vote,” Ruffalo said. “This system hasn’t been fair, but voting is how we take power and get a seat at the table.”

Young emphasized that this movement is about visibility. “We’re still here,” she said. “We want the world, especially this country, to acknowledge our contributions to American democracy.” With more than 570 recognized tribes in the U.S., she encouraged people to educate themselves about Native American history and solidarity.

For Ruffalo, the event was deeply personal. “We’re celebrating the resilience, resistance, and beauty of this culture,” he said. The actor shared that his involvement with Native American communities has profoundly shaped him, both as an activist and as a person. “I’ve learned so much from them and grown because of it,” he said, expressing his gratitude for being part of a cause that means so much to him.