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Capital One Arena To Be Used As D.C. Polling Place For November Election
https://dcist.com/story/20/08/10/capital-one-arena-will-be-a-dc-polling-place-for-november-election/
In normal times, it’s a place you can watch basketball, hockey, monster trucks, Disney on Ice, Celine Dion, or Tool. But now the Capital One Arena will have a new purpose: polling place.
D.C. election officials have confirmed to DCist/WAMU that they’ll be using the facility for early and day-of voting for November’s election, joining Atlanta and Detroit as cities that are planning to repurpose basketball arenas as massive polling places where larger crowds can be accommodated while respecting social distancing rules.
The move follows an offer late last month from Monumental Sports and Entertainment—which owns the Washington Wizards, Washington Mystics, and Washington Capitals—for the city to use the arena as a polling place. The organization made the offer as part of a broader plan by the teams and its athletes to promote voting ahead of the November elections.
The decision to use Capital One Arena as a voting location comes as election officials are finalizing the locations of the 20 early voting sites they plan to open for a two-week period ahead of the Nov. 3 election and the 80 polling places they’ll be opening on Election Day itself.
In normal times, it’s a place you can watch basketball, hockey, monster trucks, Disney on Ice, Celine Dion, or Tool. But now the Capital One Arena will have a new purpose: polling place.
D.C. election officials have confirmed to DCist/WAMU that they’ll be using the facility for early and day-of voting for November’s election, joining Atlanta and Detroit as cities that are planning to repurpose basketball arenas as massive polling places where larger crowds can be accommodated while respecting social distancing rules.
The move follows an offer late last month from Monumental Sports and Entertainment—which owns the Washington Wizards, Washington Mystics, and Washington Capitals—for the city to use the arena as a polling place. The organization made the offer as part of a broader plan by the teams and its athletes to promote voting ahead of the November elections.
The decision to use Capital One Arena as a voting location comes as election officials are finalizing the locations of the 20 early voting sites they plan to open for a two-week period ahead of the Nov. 3 election and the 80 polling places they’ll be opening on Election Day itself.
