Dodger Stadium to be Made a Polling Site as LeBron James Teams Up with Los Angeles Dodgers.

NBA Superstar, LeBron James, through More Than A Vote, is collaborating with Los Angeles Dodgers to make Dodger Stadium a polling site for the November general election. This would be the first time a Major League Baseball team would be offering its stadium to be used as a polling site for elections.

With the announcement made on Thursday, it is known that the Dodger Stadium which has been of great help during the coronavirus pandemic, being a site for coronavirus testing and also aided in food distribution will now further contribute towards the elections.

The availability of the Dodgers Stadium was a collaborative effort between Dodgers and More Than A Vote, which is an organization that works to educate, energize and protect young communities of color by fighting the lies and systemic, racist voter suppression that stand in the way of Black voices being heard.

With LeBron James starting the organization, he has had other black athletes join him in pushing the course, athletes which include Andrew Hawkins, Allison Felix, and some others.

On the day he created the organization, he told New York Times “Because of everything that's going on, people are finally starting to listen to us; we feel like we're finally getting a foot in the door. How long is up to us. We don't know. But we feel like we're getting some ears and some attention, and this is the time for us to finally make a difference.”

In a news release, Dodgers President and CEO, Stan Kasten said “Dodger Stadium is part of the fabric of Los Angeles, and we're proud to continue to partner with the County to make the property available for the benefit of the community at large…Voting is all of our civic duty, and we're excited to work with More Than a Vote to do anything we can to help get out the vote by making this process as easy, accessible, and safe for all Angelenos.”

The groups stated that the voting site will be available to registered voters for five days, they assured that they will comply with the Centers for Disease Control and Public Health guidelines regarding social distancing. There would also be free parking for registered voters during the period.

James said in a press release, “I may still be new to L.A. but didn't take long for me to learn how special the relationship is between the Dodgers and Lakers. We are all in this together…I'm really proud we were able to help the Dodgers become the first MLB stadium to open for voting. This is exactly why we created More Than a Vote. A lot of us now working together and here for every team who wants to follow the Dodgers lead and turn their stadium into a safer place for voting.”

David Price who is also part of More Than A Vote said “We may not be able to play in front of our fans this year, but we can do our part to provide a core civic function and make sure that Angelenos can safely vote this fall,"

As preparations are being made towards the election in November, some NBA teams like Detroit Pistons and The Atlanta Hawks have volunteered their arenas to be used as voting sites.