No plans to use arena as polling site

Voters around the country will cast their ballots in the same places they cheer on their favorite sports teams, but not in the home of the Columbus Blue Jackets.

The Franklin County Board of Elections, at least for right now, has no plans to use Nationwide Arena as a polling site for the general election in

November.

“We had a brief conversation,” said Ed Leonard, the board’s director. But it ultimately was decided that the arena wasn’t needed.

In recent weeks, more and more arenas have been tapped as voting centers for what could be a record turnout election conducted during a global pandemic.

The union that represents players in the National Basketball Association struck a deal with owners to use team arenas they control as polling locations as part of an agreement to restart the NBA playoffs after players refused to take the court as a form of protest against the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse, home court of the Cleveland Cavaliers, already had been tapped as a polling site in downtown Cleveland in Cuyahoga County. Former Cavaliers star Lebron

James, now a member of the Los Angeles Lakers, started an organization called More Than A Vote that has advocated for using arenas as polling sites.

Concerns about the spread of coronavirus have necessitated social distancing requirements at polling sites. The arenas provide more space to spread out voting machines and voters waiting to cast their ballots.

But Leonard said the board of elections had to weigh whether to move polling locations out of neighborhoods and into the Downtown arena.

“The thing is, we can’t just have that as an alternative location. We would have to assign precincts to vote at Nationwide Arena. Then it becomes (a question of) which precincts get assigned there, which ones don’t,” he said.

Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse, for example, will be used as a voting locations for three precincts in Cleveland’s Third Ward.

A spokesman for the board said nearly all of Franklin County’s voting locations, to be finalized soon, were able to accommodate social distancing requirements. Those that could not are being moved to other existing locations.

Parking also could be a problem for voters at Nationwide Arena, Leonard said. While there are several parking garages in the Arena District, the arena does not have a free surface lot right outside its doors.

The one scenario that Leonard said could force the board’s hand would be a shortage of poll workers. Ohio Secretary of State Frank Larose has said the state needs 35,000 poll workers to pull off the election.

Fears about poll workers not showing up for their shifts contributed to the decision to shutter the polls for Ohio’s March primary. But Leonard said Franklin County does not anticipate a problem recruiting poll workers.

The arena is available if it’s needed, said Don Brown, executive director of the Franklin County Convention Facilities Authority, which owns Nationwide Arena. rrouan@dispatch.com @Rickrouan