Advocating for people to vote in this November’s election, whether it be for the presidency or for any number of other races, has been frequent among NBA players in the league’s Orlando bubble. This advocacy has been backed up by action in a number of ways, from being vocal about the importance of participating in the democratic process to actions by individuals like LeBron James, whose voting rights group is working to do things like help disenfranchised voters in the swing state of Florida.
One big thing that we’ve seen is a several teams open up their home venues as vote centers so those in their communities are giving the opportunity to vote — the Atlanta Hawks, in particular, made headlines for making State Farm Arena the largest voting precinct in the state of Georgia, which Cook Political Report labels as a swing state in 2020.
Now, the Houston Rockets are getting in on the fun, as the team announced that it teamed up with the Harris County Clerk office to transform the Toyota Center into a Vote Center in the lead-up to Election Day this year. In addition to being open on Nov. 3, the facility will be open for early voting from Oct. 13-30.
Rockets announce they’ll make Toyota Center available as a voting center in November: pic.twitter.com/HARoeovab6
— David Aldridge (@davidaldridgedc) August 27, 2020
Cook labels Texas, which is viewed by political observers as a potential swing state in the coming years, as a “Lean Republican” state in the presidential election, while its Senate race is labeled as “Likely Republican” in favor of incumbent John Cornyn. In the 2016 presidential election, 54 percent of voters (just under 708,000) broke for Hillary Clinton, while 41.6 percent (around 546,000) went for Donald Trump.