Arenas prep to get out the vote
An American flag flies in the breeze on Fourth of July in Woodstock, Vermont. (Gareth Henderson Photo)
At least 20 National Basketball Association teams have announced plans to turn their arenas into voting centers for the November election, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.
This development is part of a social justice plan agreed to by the NBA and its players following a recent boycott of postseason play to protest the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Other sports leagues joined the walkout, which gained international attention. Along with the voting centers in arenas, the agreement between the NBA and players includes creating a social justice coalition and new advertising that promotes more civic engagement in elections.
The playoff push continued after the agreement was reached, but the move to comply with the accord was swift, especially considering teams are large organizations. On Wednesday, the Orlando Magic announced their arena, the Amway Center, will be an early voting site, according to The Washington Post. The same report said the Amway Center will host a voter registration event on Sept. 22, and will then be open for early voting for all of Orange County each day from Oct. 19 through Nov. 1 to take early ballots.
Having this service set up in Florida alone is a major impact for the Nov. 3 general election, given the Sunshine State's pivotal role in presidential contests. But the national impact is clear when listing the other NBA teams that made similar commitments with their arenas: Brooklyn, Dallas, Houston, Indiana, the Los Angeles Clippers and the Los Angeles Lakers (in two different arenas), Milwaukee, New York, Oklahoma City, Philadelphia, San Antonio, Utah and Phoenix. The Post reported these other teams planned voting or registration centers even before the boycott: Atlanta, Charlotte, Detroit, Cleveland, Washington and Sacramento.
An important focus of these plans is creating a safe environment for in-person voting during the pandemic. Fortunately, the NBA has learned a lot about wide-scale sanitation and safety, by creating the "bubble" in Walt Disney World in Orlando, where 22 out of 30 teams landed weeks ago to resume the season under strict health protocols. The NBA can easily share the knowledge it has gained from that experience with its teams as additional arena plans materialize.
This NBA initiative has been inspiring already, due to its broad impact, notably how it can reach a diversity of individuals and, just maybe, welcome people into the voting process who may not have ever trusted that their voice counts. It fits nicely with More Than a Vote, an organization co-founded by NBA superstar Lebron James, which is busy recruiting young poll workers in Black communities to boost access to voting.
Certainly, these efforts are no easy matter. Making a whole arena safe for voting during a pandemic is challenging, and getting people to participate poses its own hurdles these days. However, with the NBA’s powerful marketing arm behind it, this initiative could increase access to the vote by tens of thousands of people. In a close election, those votes could be the difference.
— Gareth Henderson
