Suns, Mercury to utilize Madhouse on McDowell as a voting center
Sep 2, 2020, 3:36 PM | Updated: 3:38 pm
(YouTube Screenshot/Phoenix Suns)
(YouTube Screenshot/Phoenix Suns)
A task force featuring members of the Phoenix Suns organization has secured the Madhouse on McDowell as a voting center and early voting ballot drop location for the upcoming November elections.
The task force, which includes owner Robert Sarver, guard Devin Booker and small forward Mikal Bridges and is backed by both the Suns and Phoenix Mercury, “has been working closely with Arizona state and Maricopa County officials to establish a broad reaching voter engagement initiative.”
With the renovations to Talking Stick Resort Arena still ongoing, the Madhouse was the team’s next choice at a voting venue.
The task force has worked with Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey and Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, as well as the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors and the Arizona State Fair Board.
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The end result is the Madhouse will be a central voting center location that can be set up to provide safe and socially distanced voting.
The task force hopes the voting space will encourage metro Phoenix and Maricopa County to get out and vote.
Sarver and the players believe that the power of vote is critical for citizens to achieve the future they want, the team said in a press release Wednesday.
The NBA and its players agreed on establishing a joint effort that will focus on providing access to voting locations for the general election, among other things, following a three-day boycott by players over social injustices.
“I remain personally ready, willing and able to work side by side with our Suns, Mercury and other WNBA and NBA players and coaches to bring about criminal justice reform,” Sarver said in a statement in August.
“We have done it before locally, fighting discriminatory legislation in our state and unfair sheriffing in our county, specifically advocating to defeat SB-1070 that legalized racial profiling in 2010.”
A date is still being decided for accepting early ballots outside the Madhouse North Box Office, the release said.
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