Arrowhead Stadium to be Polling Place for 2020 Election

Arrowhead Stadium, the home of the Kansas City Chiefs, will officially be a polling place for Jackson County voters in the 2020 election, according to numerous reports.

Arrowhead Stadium, the home of the Kansas City Chiefs, will officially be a polling place for Jackson County voters in the 2020 general election on November 3, according to numerous reports and a document on The Kansas City Board of Election Commissioners website.

The Chiefs have been working on this goal since at least August, as Chiefs team president Mark Donovan discussed the plans with the media on August 26.

"We want to make Arrowhead a polling location," Donovan said while noting that there were still issues to iron out at that time. "We want to create an opportunity for people to come to Arrowhead and vote."

Now, it appears that opportunity will exist for a number of Kansas Citians. 41 Action News reported additional details on who can vote at the home of the Chiefs:

Sean Kieffer, director at the Kansas City, Missouri, Election Board, says any voter within KCEB's jurisdiction (those who live within the city limits of Kansas City, Missouri in Jackson County, Missouri) will be allowed to vote at the stadium using voting machines.

Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes and safety Tyrann Mathieu have publicly spearheaded the team's emphasis on voter registration, with Mahomes partnering with LeBron James' More Than A Vote in June. Earlier in June, Mahomes discussed how he and the Chiefs decided that voter registration and activism would be one of their key points of emphasis this offseason and into the year.

“I think it came from talking and listening to teammates and people throughout our organization,” Mahomes said. “Obviously, with voting coming up for local offices and everything like that, we wanted to make sure that was in the front of our minds.”

Mathieu has also spoken on the same cause, saying he hopes to "make voting cool," with the goal of making it easier for communities to choose their leadership in a fair and functional way.

“If we can really get a program going to get behind that, to be the first ones to make [voting] cool and then to see 30 other NFL teams doing it, and 30 plus basketball teams doing it, I think that right there, a lot of sports teams are full of minorities,” Mathieu said in July. “It’s full of kids from black communities, it’s full of those people from urban areas. It’s going to be our duty, it’s our responsibility to understand that, yeah, we do have a million dollars and we can fix some things to a certain extent, but to really make change, to really see our kids have a future, to really see young black minority, any minority, hold a great sense of power and great offices. That comes from voter registration, young kids going to the poll.”

Mahomes has spoken extensively about his use of his platform to support social justice initiatives including Black Lives Matter and various voting awareness programs. 

“I'm going do whatever I believe and what I believe is right and I'm going to do whatever I can to fight for equality for all people," Mahomes said in late August. "I mean, I feel like I've shown that over this offseason. I'm going to continue that fight and I'm not worried about people and how they're going to do negative stuff back to me. I'm worried about doing what's right for humanity and making sure that all people feel equal.”