In the midst of an unusually tense presidential election in 2020, election officials scrambled to adapt the voting process to a socially distanced world. They found unlikely partners in major and minor league sports teams, each of which opened the doors of their stadiums to create safe and convenient polling places. That November, 48 stadiums and arenas across the U.S. were used for voting, leading Tova Wang, a senior fellow in democratic practices at the Ash Center, to wonder if this was having any impact on the voting process. An expert on voting rights and elections and a self-described “huge sports fan,” she began working with four other scholars to evaluate the experience and effectiveness of voting at sports venues.
“We’ve done a report that shows how great this has been for our election officials, for our voters, for our whole team,” she said at a virtual event about stadium voting hosted by the University of Minnesota’s Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Policy. “It was great in every way because the officials had a huge amount of space. They were able to set up a lot of machines, they had plenty of parking. The team … knows how to keep the lines moving.” She also noted that it’s often a fun experience, which isn’t always the case with in-person voting.
Scott Pioli, a former NFL executive who is now an NFL analyst and consultant and Wang’s partner on the project, also weighed in on the discussion. A longtime advocate for equity, social justice and civic engagement, Pioli recounted his involvement in efforts to use sports venues as polling places. In 2014, after moving to Georgia to work with the Atlanta Falcons, Pioli went to vote at the nearest polling place, where he waited for more than an hour in near-freezing temperatures and rain before finally being forced to leave. He drove to a more affluent neighborhood, where he was greeted with a snack and quickly cast his vote.
He recalled thinking, as he was heartbroken by his experience, “There’s a stadium here, there’s an arena here, all of these things being built in the middle of a community with a lot of people who are marginalized in different ways…” [so] “Why not use these facilities that were built with taxpayer money? … Why not use these facilities that were built by the people, for the people?” Pioli said he took the proposal to RISE (Republic of Sports Initiative for Sports Equality), a nonprofit organization of which he serves on the board, “and that was the start of this conversation.”
“The election right now is not all fun and games. It’s very, very, very stressful. And I think a partnership like this would be a good thing for everybody.”
Tova Wang
Senior Research Fellow in Democratic Practice
In the end, the 2020 stadium vote was a huge success. Wang noted, “Elections right now are not all fun and games, they’re very, very stressful, and I think a partnership like this is going to be a feel-good thing for everybody.” Pioli agreed, adding that the team also benefited from the experience, because it “gave us an opportunity to really experience, for a day or more, the value that most teams talk about: engaging with the community at a grassroots level.” He noted the irony of taxpayers funding spaces they can’t visit, and how the stadium vote provides a rare opportunity to make those spaces accessible to all.
The most notable finding from the survey was the overall feeling that stadium voting is working well for everyone, regardless of partisan affiliation, background or beliefs. “None of these people reported receiving any serious backlash on social media or email, which is very striking,” Wang said. “For teams and companies, at the end of the day, companies that may be cautious about getting involved in anything given the political climate, this seems like a way they can give back to the community and help preserve our democracy.”
Looking to the future, Wang said he wants to make voting at sports venues “bigger and better” this year. While many election-related decisions are “very fluid right now,” Pioli said, “this year, like any other, [stadium voting] “It’s increasing, and the availability and desire to do it is increasing, so I think there’s a real opportunity out there for people.”
Case Study
From Crisis to Opportunity: How the City of Portland Embraced Democratic Innovation
In this case study of democratic innovation at the local level, the authors answer the questions: Why were voting representation and democratic reform firmly on Portland’s agenda in 2022, and did this change contribute to Portlanders passing Measure 26-228?
Features
Can higher education renew our democracy?
In a new paper, Daniel Allen explores what role higher education can play in promoting the health of our democracy.
Features
Can deliberative democracy remedy democratic backsliding? Two HKS students think it might.
Amid growing concerns about the health of democracy, Medha Uniyal and Kartikeya Bhatotia look at certain “experimental democratic practices” that could better connect citizens to the decision-making process.
