Tag: Elections

Toyota Center opens as voting site in Houston for 2020 U.S. elections

As of Tuesday, the Houston Rockets’ downtown arena (Toyota Center) is now open as a voting site for the 2020 U.S. general election.

As of Tuesday, the Houston Rockets’ downtown arena (Toyota Center) is officially open as a voting site for the 2020 U.S. general election.

From Oct. 13 to Oct. 30, Toyota Center can be used by any registered voter in Harris County for the first time. Under the team’s plan, which was announced during the NBA’s August pause amid social justice protests, Toyota Center will be open to voters from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. local time on Monday through Saturday, and noon to 7 p.m. on Sundays.

From Oct. 27 to Oct. 30, in the final days of early voting, Toyota Center will have extended voting hours from 7 a.m. until 10 p.m. Arena officials say the site will follow all U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and public health guidelines regarding social distancing, and county representatives have noted that using such a large facility for voting could make distancing easier than at typical smaller locations.

Toyota Center will also be open as a voting site on the official Election Day of Nov. 3. Marquee races on the ballot in Houston include the race for U.S. president, as well as one of two U.S. Senate slots from Texas.

The Rockets are partnering with Houston First to provide free parking at the Toyota Tundra Garage throughout the voting process.

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Houston Rockets host voter registration drive at Toyota Center

The Rockets teamed up with Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo on Friday to host a voter registration drive at Toyota Center.

Officials with the Rockets, Toyota Center, and the office of Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo came together Friday for a voter registration drive, held at the team’s arena in downtown Houston.

The nonpartisan event was designed to encourage registration among eligible voters for the Nov. 3 general election — headlined by the race for U.S. president and a U.S. Senate contest in Texas. Anyone eligible to vote is able to register, regardless of which county they reside in.

The registration deadline for the upcoming election is Oct. 5, and fans can text ROCKETS to 26797 to confirm their voter registration status.

Rockets team mascot Clutch the Bear was on hand for Friday’s kickoff event, and Rockets giveaways were handed out throughout the day.

From Oct. 13 to Oct. 30, Toyota Center will be open to any registered voter in Harris County as an early voting hub. It’s the first time that the downtown arena has been used for that purpose. Under the team’s plan, which was announced during the NBA’s recent pause amid social justice protests, Toyota Center will be open to voters from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Monday through Saturday, and noon to 7 p.m. on Sundays.

From Oct. 27 to Oct. 30, in the final days of early voting, Toyota Center will have extended voting hours from 7 a.m. until 10 p.m. Arena officials say the site will follow all U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and public health guidelines regarding social distancing, and county representatives have noted that using such a large facility for voting could make distancing easier than at typical smaller locations.

The Rockets have partnered with Houston First to provide free parking at the Toyota Tundra Garage throughout the voting process.

“Voting is an extremely important right which many have fought hard for throughout the years, and we want to thank the Harris County Clerk office for allowing the Rockets and Toyota Center to offer support,” said Doug Hall, general manager of Toyota Center.

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Rockets to hold voter registration drive in Houston on Sept. 22

The Rockets will conduct a voter registration drive at two locations on Tuesday, Sept. 22 as part of National Voter Registration Day.

The Houston Rockets announced Friday that they will conduct a voter registration drive at two locations on Tuesday, Sept. 22 as part of National Voter Registration Day. The organization is placing a clear emphasis on making voting more accessible to the community, as also shown by their recent move to open up Toyota Center as a voting site.

Tuesday’s nonpartisan event will give people who are eligible the opportunity to register to vote in the upcoming Nov. 3 general election.

The voter registration drive will take place at Toyota Center from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and at the Near Northside YMCA (705 Cavalcade St.) from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Tuesday. Both locations are free and open to the public. Rockets mascot Clutch the Bear will be on site to greet the public, and team giveaways will be handed out throughout the day at both locations.

Anyone who is eligible to vote may register at either location, regardless of which county they reside in.

The official Rockets Team Shop at Toyota Center will be open from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Tuesday with discounted merchandise available, along with the opportunity to purchase a new “Rockets vote” T-shirt.

Toyota Center and the Near Northside YMCA will follow all U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and public health guidelines regarding social distancing, and volunteers will be on site to assist and answer any questions about the voting process. Anyone interested can also text ROCKETS to 26797 to confirm their voter registration status.

First observed in 2012, National Voter Registration Day has contributed to nearly 3 million voters registering to vote on the civic holiday.

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Gators News: July 22, 2020

The biggest news in the college athletics world is football, or more specifically, whether or not there will be football come this fall. 

Welcome to a Wednesday edition of Gators News, with the Major League Baseball season set to get started tomorrow and while the National Basketball Association plays out a few exhibition games before its season restart officially kicks off on July 30.

The biggest news in the college athletics world is football, or more specifically, whether or not there will be college football come this fall. Mark Emmert over at our parent site USA TODAY discusses how a November without college football would affect the national elections in his article published this morning while Chris Bumbaca took a look at how the world of sports betting will have to conform to the “new normal” in light of all of the changes that have occurred due to the novel coronavirus outbreak. David M. Hale at ESPN also imagines a world where has relegation and promotion, a la the English Premier League and other tiered leagues.

Here is the latest news from the Gator Nation.

Around the Swamp

It’s great to be a Florida Gator!

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Draymond Green stresses importance of local elections, fighting voter suppression

On First Take, Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green spoke of the importance of voting locally and combating voter suppression.

Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green has taken a role in LeBron James’ “More Than A Vote” initiative, encouraging citizens to vote, learn about voting processes and the electoral college, and put time and effort into local elections.

“Not only voting in November, but voting at your local elections. I’ve never voted at a local election, and so I’ve been trying to educate myself on the process, educating myself on why that’s important,” Green said on ESPN’s “First Take” on Tuesday.

The “More Than A Vote” initiative, created and funded by James and his business partner Maverick Carter, also involves basketball figures such as Udonis Haslem, Stephen Jackson, Jalen Rose, Skyler Diggins-Smith and Chiney Ogwumike.

“More important than anything, it’s just a bunch of guys and women understanding the need,” Green said. “We have a platform now. This country is not in a great position right now, and we could help create that change and we want to do our part.”

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The group has been vocal this month in alleging voter suppression, specifically in Kentucky and Georgia, as voting locations have been shuttered during the coronavirus pandemic.

“When you look at these counties that are predominantly black … Jefferson County, different counties of that nature, that’s going to continue to happen because you can look at the data. And the data shows that if the African American population comes out and votes, things are going to change in this country,” Green said. “And so the best way to stop that is to suppress the votes.”

In Kentucky, which is holding primary elections Tuesday, fewer than 200 polling locations are open, about 95% less than the 3,700 open in a typical election, according to the Washington Post. There’s only one in Jefferson County, the state’s most populous county, which is home to about 45% of the state’s Black population.

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear expressed confidence to the Courier Journal that absentee mail-in ballots and early voting would help alleviate the crowded facilities.

On Monday morning, the Jefferson County Clerk’s office reported 218,404 absentee ballots had been mailed and 96,000 had been returned, according to the Courier Journal. About 7,500 people had voted early in person last week.

The highest primary total in Kentucky’s history was 192,630 in 2008.

In Georgia’s June 9 election, new voting machines contributed to long lines and failure of poll workers to properly handle the machines, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Some voters who requested absentee ballots did not receive them.

Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms tweeted about machine failures throughout the city.

One Black voter told Politico it took her three hours to vote, and her nephew six hours; when she drove to a predominantly white polling location, there were no lines.

With long delays forcing voting hours to be extended in some counties, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and House Speaker David Ralston called for investigations, according to the IBTimes.

The state has closed about 5% of polling locations since 2017, when the Supreme Court weakened a 2013 voting-discrimination law, according to Reuters.

More than 665,000 voters were removed from the rolls that same year. Many of those people had been inactive for three years and did not respond to a notice asking if they wanted to remain on the voting roll, according to the Journal-Constitution.

Despite all this, with Georgia mailing every registered active voter an absentee ballot application, there was a greater turnout than last election cycle, particularly for Democrats, according to NBC.

About 20% of the people who had been removed from voting rolls registered in 2008, according to the AJC.

Green himself said he hadn’t voted since 2008.

“I know there are several other people out there just like myself who haven’t voted in years, so I want to help spread my story and the reasons I didn’t — and let them know that it’s nothing to be ashamed of,” Green said. “We’ve all had our reasons of why we haven’t gone out to the polls. But right now our lives are on the line, and it’s more important than ever.”