Trae Young buys lunch for election workers still counting Georgia votes at Hawks' arena
With the nation’s eyes on Georgia as its pivotal votes are counted in the 2020 presidential election, Atlanta Hawks star sent a big “thank you” to the election workers still counting votes at his team’s arena.
Workers at the State Farm Arena received several boxes from Jason’s Deli on Friday, with a note from Young.
Thank you so much @TheTraeYoung for providing lunch today for our election workers at @StateFarmArena ! The @ATLHawks have supported us throughout this election process. #TrueToAtlanta #Election2020 #Grateful pic.twitter.com/byy0hva3c0
— FultonCountyGeorgia (@FultonInfo) November 6, 2020
Young posted another note of thanks on Twitter, calling the poll workers “a valuable player in our democracy.”
A Fulton County spokesperson told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the assistance came out to boxed lunches for 50 different workers at State Farm Arena.
As of Friday evening, former vice president Joe Biden holds a lead of around 4,000 votes over President Donald Trump for Georgia’s 16 votes in the electoral college. After multiple days of Trump leading the state, Biden took the lead in the state early Friday morning as election workers continued to count Democrat-leaning mail-in votes.
NBA and WNBA came up big in Georgia election
Following protests against the shooting of Jacob Blake in Wisconsin, the NBA and its players came to an agreement that all team-owned arenas would be used as voting sites for the upcoming election. Even though the Hawks don’t own their arena — the Atlanta Fulton County Recreation Authority actually holds the keys — it was still open for early votes in the election.
The short lines, readily available parking and sheer size drew rave reviews from some voters leading up to Election Day. Even Hawks head coach Lloyd Pierce spent a day volunteering at the site.
The Hawks have since told ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne that 40,000 people voted early at State Farm Arena. The exact demographic split of those voters and whether or not they would have voted elsewhere is unclear, but in race potentially decided by fewer than 5,000 votes, the arena very well could have made a difference.
Also playing a significant role in Georgia’s election was the WNBA, where players threw their support behind Democratic Senate candidate Raphael Warnock against Atlanta Dream co-owner Kelly Loeffler in this year’s special election.
Warnock had been polling around nine percent when WNBA players endorsed him. As of Friday, he holds 32.9 percent of the vote and is headed to a run-off against Loeffler in January.
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