LAKE BUENA VISTA, Florida – The Orlando Magic announced Wednesday that their home arena will serve as an early voting venue for the upcoming general election, continuing the rapidly growing movement from across the NBA to open buildings to voters in the coming weeks.
The Magic will open the Amway Center on September 22 for a voter registration event, then open to all Orange County voters every day from October 19 to November 1 to vote early. The general elections are on November 3rd.
“For me, voting is the most American thing you can do to make a democracy work,” said magic center Mo Bamba, who will work in the arena as a volunteer during early voting. “I learned this at an early age in elementary school, by voting for a class president. This is something I just want to push for. “
At least 20 NBA teams have revealed plans to establish voting centers for this year’s election – with most of these announcements coming last week and largely sparked by the NBA players’ decision to terminate their playoffs in course for three. days of protest against racial injustice and police brutality.
The players have returned to work after agreeing with the league and teams on an action plan that revolves mainly around encouraging voting in the fall. Teams, in every city where they own and control arena ownership, have vowed to work with local election officials to convert the facility into a voting venue or, at the very least, organize voter registration events.
“I think the idea started with the NBA and the players,” Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer said. “I suppose if the election supervisor had come to ask us, he probably would have too. But it sure was the NBA’s drive and purpose to do it, so I’ll change my mind and say no, it probably wouldn’t have happened without the NBA. “
Some teams, such as Atlanta, Charlotte, Detroit, Cleveland, Washington, and Sacramento, have pledged to establish voting centers – whether it be actual voting or citizen registration – ahead of last week’s game hiatus.
Added to that list in recent days: Brooklyn, Dallas, Houston, Indiana, Los Angeles Clippers and Los Angeles Lakers (in two different arenas), Milwaukee, New York, Oklahoma City, Philadelphia, San Antonio, Utah, The Magic, and more late Wednesday Phoenix also announced plans. The Suns, in concert with the WNBA’s Mercury, said they secured the Veterans Memorial Coliseum as a voting center and early voting location; The Phoenix home building, the Talking Stick Resort Arena, is unavailable due to construction projects.
Many other teams, including Miami, are pushing local and county officials to allow their facilities to be early voting sites starting next week.
“Ultimately, I think it’s perhaps the most important thing that we as an organization, the players, the coaches, all really encourage and help facilitate people’s voting,” Milwaukee manager Mike Budenholzer said Wednesday. “This is what democracy is. It is founded on all of us represented.”
Top NBA players like LeBron James have been promoting the need to vote this fall for some time. James is part of a voting rights group, More Than A Vote, formed this spring with other black athletes and entertainers – and part of his platform is to push for mega voting sites to welcome in-person voting during the COVID pandemic. -19.
