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The Milwaukee Bucks arena has gained approval to be a voting venue, Lasry says

Marc Lasry

Cameron Costa | CNBC

The Milwaukee Bucks arena will be used as a voting venue for the 2020 election, team co-owner Marc Lasry told CNBC on Monday.

In an interview on “Halftime Report”, Lasry confirmed that the team has received approval in the last “24 or 48 hours” to turn the Fiserv Forum in downtown Milwaukee into a polling venue for the upcoming November election.

“So I am happy to say that the Fiserv Forum will now be a polling station,” Lasry said.

Last month the Bucks announced their willingness to turn the arena into a voting venue, an offer that has taken on growing significance in the past few days as team players initiated the athletes’ widespread protests against racial injustice. .

The Bucks are now joining other NBA teams such as the Atlanta Hawks, Sacramento Kings, and Detroit Pistons in turning arenas into voting venues.

Lasry’s comments follow the resumption of the NBA playoffs over the weekend after player protests over racial injustice led to a post-season hiatus. The work stoppage began Wednesday with the Bucks, who were responding to the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a black man in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

The protests then spread throughout the NBA and other professional sports leagues, including the WNBA and baseball.

NBA players pondered whether to continue with the playoffs within Florida’s so-called championship bubble, which was instituted as a way to safely finish the season during the coronavirus pandemic. The league had attempted to strike at racial justice as part of its July reboot following the May death of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis.

On Thursday, the players finally decided to proceed with the playoffs. The next day, the NBA and the players union released a joint statement detailing further efforts to tackle racial inequality in the United States, including increasing access to voting by turning some basketball arenas into polling stations. They also agreed to establish a social justice coalition made up of players, coaches and owners who will work to support other reforms.

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