NBA will work to set up 2020 election polling sites in arenas as part of playoff restart
NBA teams will work to set up 2020 election voting sites in arenas as part of commitments made to end a player strike over racial injustice, the league announced Friday.
In a statement, National Basketball Players Association Executive Director Michele Roberts and NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said that in cities where franchises own venues, they will work with local officials to convert them into polling places "to allow for a safe in-person voting option for communities vulnerable" to the coronavirus pandemic. If deadlines to set up new voting locations have passed, teams will instead push to use the arenas for voter registration and ballot receiving boards.
Several NBA teams have already agreed or offered to make facilities into polling places for November's election during a player-led drive to increase voter turnout amid a reckoning over systemic racism against Black Americans. They include the Atlanta Hawks, Sacramento Kings, Detroit Pistons, Cleveland Cavaliers, Houston Rockets and Milwaukee Bucks.
Many of those teams have spacious arenas in swing states that will help to determine the outcome of the presidential election this year. Cities such as Atlanta and Milwaukee saw long lines for in-person voting in primary elections this year, particularly in Black communities, where the pandemic has hit hardest.
Teams would normally be playing games in their home arenas around Election Day, Nov. 3. But the pandemic delayed both the 2020 playoffs and the start of the league's 2020-2021 season.
The Bucks led an NBA-wide play stoppage Wednesday. They did not take the floor for a playoff game against the Orlando Magic as they protested the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old Black man, in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
Many players in the predominantly Black NBA worried the league's restart in Orlando late last month would distract from their efforts to combat racial inequities in the U.S. following the police killings of Black Americans George Floyd and Breonna Taylor earlier this year. The playoff halt this week, part of wider work stoppages in the WNBA, MLB and NHL, yielded a broader commitment to racial justice initiatives.
Along with the effort to set up polling places, the NBA will set up a social justice coalition made up of players, coaches and governors, Roberts and Silver said. The group will focus on "increasing access to voting, promoting civic engagement, and advocating for meaningful police and criminal justice reform."
The league will also create ads designed to increase civic engagement to run during playoff games.
"We look forward to the resumption of the playoffs and continuing to work together — in Orlando and in all NBA team markets — to push for meaningful and sustainable change," Roberts and Silver said.
The NBA will restart playoff games on Saturday
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cn...up-2020-election-polling-sites-in-arenas.html
NBA teams will work to set up 2020 election voting sites in arenas as part of commitments made to end a player strike over racial injustice, the league announced Friday.
In a statement, National Basketball Players Association Executive Director Michele Roberts and NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said that in cities where franchises own venues, they will work with local officials to convert them into polling places "to allow for a safe in-person voting option for communities vulnerable" to the coronavirus pandemic. If deadlines to set up new voting locations have passed, teams will instead push to use the arenas for voter registration and ballot receiving boards.
Several NBA teams have already agreed or offered to make facilities into polling places for November's election during a player-led drive to increase voter turnout amid a reckoning over systemic racism against Black Americans. They include the Atlanta Hawks, Sacramento Kings, Detroit Pistons, Cleveland Cavaliers, Houston Rockets and Milwaukee Bucks.
Many of those teams have spacious arenas in swing states that will help to determine the outcome of the presidential election this year. Cities such as Atlanta and Milwaukee saw long lines for in-person voting in primary elections this year, particularly in Black communities, where the pandemic has hit hardest.
Teams would normally be playing games in their home arenas around Election Day, Nov. 3. But the pandemic delayed both the 2020 playoffs and the start of the league's 2020-2021 season.
The Bucks led an NBA-wide play stoppage Wednesday. They did not take the floor for a playoff game against the Orlando Magic as they protested the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old Black man, in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
Many players in the predominantly Black NBA worried the league's restart in Orlando late last month would distract from their efforts to combat racial inequities in the U.S. following the police killings of Black Americans George Floyd and Breonna Taylor earlier this year. The playoff halt this week, part of wider work stoppages in the WNBA, MLB and NHL, yielded a broader commitment to racial justice initiatives.
Along with the effort to set up polling places, the NBA will set up a social justice coalition made up of players, coaches and governors, Roberts and Silver said. The group will focus on "increasing access to voting, promoting civic engagement, and advocating for meaningful police and criminal justice reform."
The league will also create ads designed to increase civic engagement to run during playoff games.
"We look forward to the resumption of the playoffs and continuing to work together — in Orlando and in all NBA team markets — to push for meaningful and sustainable change," Roberts and Silver said.
The NBA will restart playoff games on Saturday
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cn...up-2020-election-polling-sites-in-arenas.html
For now, let's take stock of where the NBA's initiative to turn arenas into voting sites stand. Which arenas have already announced plans to be converted into polling sites, which ones will likely join them, and which ones are owned by the public and out of the NBA's hands.
[h=3]Teams to announce prior to joint NBA/NBPA statement[/h]
<section class="Newsletter-container" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0); margin: 30px 0px; padding: 32px; border: 1px solid rgb(218, 224, 229); box-sizing: border-box;">[FONT="][/FONT]
</section>
[h=3]Teams to announce prior to joint NBA/NBPA statement[/h]
- Atlanta Hawks. On June 29, the Hawks announced that State Farm Arena would be used for early voting for the Georgia General Primary Runoff Election between July 20-Aug. 11, and it will be used for the general election on Nov. 3 as well.
- Detroit Pistons. On July 1, the Pistons announced that their practice facility, the Henry Ford Pistons Performance Center, would serve as a polling place on Nov. 3. Additionally, they announced several other initiatives, including a voter registration page on Pistons.com and live voter registration events at the practice facility.
- Sacramento Kings. The Golden 1 Center will be open to voters for registration from Oct. 24 through Nov. 3 and will serve as a voting center on Election Day, the Kings announced on July 17.
- Washington Wizards. On Aug. 10, the Wizards announced that Capital One Arena would be used as a voting site, but details are still being determined.
- Houston Rockets. The Toyota Center will be open to registered voters from Oct. 13-30 and on Election Day, Nov. 3, the team announced on Aug. 27.
- Los Angeles Clippers. The Forum, which is owned privately after Steve Ballmer purchased it from Knicks owner James Dolan in May, will be available for voters from Oct. 24-Nov. 3 to either drop off mail-in ballots or vote in person, the Clippers announced. The Clippers do not play at the Forum. The Staples Center, where they and the Los Angeles Lakers play, is privately owned and operated, has not been announced as a voting site.
- New York Knicks. Madison Square Garden will be available for early voting from Oct. 24-Nov. 1 for over 60,000 registered New York voters assigned to it as a polling place, and will be open on Election Day itself from 6 a.m. through 9 p.m., ET, the Knicks announced.
- Indiana Pacers. Banker's Life Field House will be available as a voting site from Oct. 24-Nov. 1, and on Election Day, Nov. 3, the Pacers announced.
- Utah Jazz. Vivint Smart Home Arena will serve as a voting site on Election Day, Nov. 3, the Jazz announced. In addition, three Larry H. Miller Multiplex Theaters in Utah will be used as voting sites as well.
- San Antonio Spurs. Bexar County Commissioner Justin Rodriguez revealed Friday that the AT&T Center will be used as a voting site. The team has not followed that up with a release of its own, but the arena is owned by Bexar County.
- Dallas Mavericks. The Mavericks announced that American Airlines Center will be used as a voting site as part of its "7 Days of Action" Initiative.
- Milwaukee Bucks. On July 1, Bucks owner Alex Lasry announced that the teamwould partner with LeBron James' More than a Vote initiative to make Fiserv Forum available as a voting site. The team itself has not made an official announcement since then, however.
- Golden State Warriors. The Chase Center is planning on serving as a voting site, but has not yet made an official announcement, according to The San Francisco Chronicle. An announcement is expected in the near future.
- Memphis Grizzlies. The Grizzlies announced Friday that they had reached out to the Shelby County Election Commission about using FedEx Forum as a voting site, but were told instead to focus on driving voters to local precincts.
- Brooklyn Nets. Barclays Center is technically owned by the Brooklyn Arena Local Development Corporation, which leases the arena to Brooklyn Events Center, LLC, an entity owned by Nets owner Joe Tsai, for $1 per year.
- Phoenix Suns. Talking Stick Center is owned by the Phoenix City Council, and is currently being renovated, which will prevent it from being used as a voting site.
- Cleveland Cavaliers. Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse is owned by the Gateway Economic Development Corporation, a non-profit that also owns Progressive Field.
- Orlando Magic. Amway Center is owned by the Orlando City Council.
- Miami Heat. American Airlines Arena is owned by Miami-Dade County.
- Charlotte Hornets. Spectrum Center is owned by the Charlotte City Council.
- Minnesota Timberwolves. Target center is owned by the city of Minneapolis.
- Oklahoma City Thunder. Chesapeake Energy Arena is owned by Oklahoma City.
- New Orleans Pelicans. Smoothie King Center is owned by the state of Louisiana.
<section class="Newsletter-container" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0); margin: 30px 0px; padding: 32px; border: 1px solid rgb(218, 224, 229); box-sizing: border-box;">[FONT="][/FONT]
</section>
Giving the populous more places to vote is somehow collusion?
I don't understand how more voting spots could be a bad thing.
I'd like to hear your view redeye..if anything it's a net positive for both side..less mail in and a big push to register voters, both parties
fair and free elections win win the way I see it...Inclusion not collusion
I have problems with the NBA too.. we talked about it over beers.
I do think this is a positive where I haven't supported much of what the NBA has done politically lately.
Doing the cummings creek loop today 9.7 miles..you would dig it being the walker and all.
https://www.oregonhikers.org/field_guide/Cummins_Creek_Loop_Hike
Hope all is well RE
Fake news, just like everything else you post.
https://www.wthr.com/amp/article/sp...fake/531-be221fcc-cacf-41a2-97c0-2cf3d83a0abb
https://www.wthr.com/amp/article/sp...fake/531-be221fcc-cacf-41a2-97c0-2cf3d83a0abb
