LeBron’s group touts sports venues as megavoting sites
ATLANTA — If the Lakers’ LeBron James gets his way, NBA arenas and other sports venues around the country will be megapolling sites for the November general election.
James and his votingrights group, formed this spring with other Black athletes and entertainers, are joining with other professional basketball leaders and Michigan’s top elections official to push for megavoting sites to accommodate inperson balloting amid the COVID19 pandemic.
More Than A Vote, the James organization dedicated to maximizing Black turnout in November, shared its plans with the Associated Press on Wednesday after the Detroit Pistons became the second NBA franchise to announce plans to use its arena for voting later this year. In Georgia, Fulton County elections officials this week approved the Atlanta Hawks’ proposal to use State Farm Arena as a polling site. Plans call for the arena to serve any Fulton County voters during early voting and on election day, Nov. 3.
The idea, which comes after Kentucky used large facilities in its June 23 primary, is to use large spaces that allow for inperson voting while still enforcing social distancing guidelines. It also underscores the attention on the mechanics of voting amid the pandemic, with the intensity already reflected in both President Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden warning that state and local officials have the power to “corrupt” the election.
Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson called her “partnership” with the Pistons a “blueprint for other teams and leagues seeking to advance our common goal of protecting access to the vote for all.”
Lloyd Pierce, head coach of the Atlanta Hawks, said the arrangement in his city ensures “high turnout” in a safe environment. Benson, Pierce and David Fizdale, the former New York Knicks head coach, will advise NBA franchises and arenamanagement entities around the country on how to replicate the existing deals.
The Milwaukee Bucks also confirmed they are willing to use their home arena as a voting site in the most populous city in the key state of Wisconsin.
The coordinated push is a turnabout, of sorts, in the oftenpartisan jousting over voting procedures.
Some Democrats panned Kentucky elections officials for limiting inperson June primary voting in the state’s two most populous counties to Louisville’s Exposition Center and the University of Kentucky football stadium in Lexington. Votingrights advocates argued in federal court that the plan, part of culling voting sites statewide amid coronavirus concerns, would harm minority voters.
A federal judge rejected their claims, and voting proceeded without the melee that some advocates had forecast.
Now, Benson, a Democrat, is pushing the arena model not as an example of potential voter suppression, but a way to fight it. “One of our greatest challenges in protecting voters’ access to democracy this November is identifying accessible locations where citizens can safely vote in person,” she said.
Amid COVID19, that could outweigh potential logistical difficulties of large sites. Lines for such venues still can be long — just as with normal polling locations — as was seen in Lexington at some points on primary day. Voters also could face traffic jams or publictransit hiccups given the number of people involved. General elections also have considerably larger turnout than primaries.
Nonetheless, there’s a growing bipartisan push for largevenue voting. NFL executive Scott Pioli last week presented the National Association of Secretaries of State a plan for widespread use of professional and college sports facilities.
James’ group is officially nonpartisan. But James has been open about its emphasis on the Black community, from which Trump faces intense opposition for his white identity politics. James has not endorsed Biden, but he endorsed Hillary Clinton over Trump in 2016.
In Milwaukee, meanwhile, the Bucks’ owners, the Lasry family, are major Democratic Party donors. Bucks executive Alex Lasry helped lead the effort that landed the Democratic National Convention in the city.
Bill Barrow is an Associated Press writer.
“One of our greatest challenges in protecting voters’ access to democracy this November is identifying accessible locations where citizens can safely vote in person.”
Jocelyn Benson, Michigan Secretary of State