Paul Rudd handed out cookies to voters waiting in pouring rain to cast their ballots

Actor Paul Rudd found the sweetest way to make the early voting line a bit more bearable for voters in Brooklyn. The 51-year-old star joined voters waiting in line at the Barclays Center on Thursday morning and handed out cookies to those waiting in the pouring rain to cast their early ballots. In a now-viral video shared on Twitter by Brian Rosenworcel, drummer for the band Guster, Rudd was seen handing out blueberry-and-cream cookies from the popular sweets store Milk Bar and even posing for a few photographs with voters in line.

"I was standing in line and I thought Paul was just there to vote, but then he starts handing out cookies to people in line," Rosenworcel told CNN. "And he waited to greet people as they exited to say thanks for voting in the rain." In the video — which had been viewed over 4.3 million times as of Friday morning — the Avengers star is heard thanking voters for coming out and performing their civic duty. "I want to say thank you for coming out and voting and doing your part," he is heard telling people in line while wearing a face mask and plastic gloves to protect against the spread of the novel Coronavirus.

Speaking to Now This News at the polls, Rudd said he was pleased with the turnout and hoped to show his gratitude to those exercising their right to vote even amid such unfavorable conditions. "It should not be hard to vote. People should be getting the day off from work. Polling places should be everywhere. This should be easy, not difficult," he said. "One of the things that's been really encouraging is seeing how many people are coming out early and voting all across the country."

"Anybody who is waiting in line, you know, deserves to be kind of, I think, thanked, and encouraged, and recognized. And that's what we wanted to do. And we figured people would probably be waiting in line even in the rain. And they are," the Ant-Man and the Wasp actor added. "This was just a kind of come out and stop people that were waiting in line that were getting wet and doing their part as citizens, you know, give 'em some cookies while they do it." Rudd was joined by filmmaker Andrew Jarecki, who has reportedly been working to encourage voting at sports arenas and stadiums through the Elections Super Centers Project.

"Adding polling places where you can safely vote is really important," said Jarecki. "Letting people vote in a place that is big enough so you can have social distancing, and people are comfortable here, there's public transport. It's harder and harder to vote because of COVID-19, and there are fewer polling places, so the idea of letting people vote in arenas, where they were already kind of empty, was really, really good. And especially because people are out here in the rain today, we wanted to come out and give out cookies, and you know, Paul wanted to come out and show support for those people."

Rudd revealed that the reaction from voters was mostly positive. "Every once in a while, somebody doesn't want anything to do with a cookie or talking to anybody. But usually, people have come out and they feel so good because they've done it, you know? There's a real pride, I think, that we all feel when we cast a vote, when we're taking part in this great experiment," he said. "And so everybody is in a pretty good mood when they leave the polling place."