With a number of its live entertainment venues shuttered due to the coronavirus pandemic, Live Nation is offering them up for a new purpose – voting. The entertainment behemoth announced plans to examine the feasibility for the use of more than 100 of its venues as polling places, with four – The Wiltern and Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles, Emo’s in Austin and the Buckhead Theatre in Atlanta already approved.
Beyond offering its buildings up for communities that need them, the company is also providing employees with paid time off for the purpose of voting, enabling employees to volunteer as poll workers and partnering with organizations dedicated to spurring participation in the action on November 3.
“Core to what we do at Live Nation is helping amplify voices on stage around the world, and supporting voting is another important way we want to continue making voices heard,” said Michael Rapino, President and CEO of Live Nation. “We’re honored to work with such incredible partners and will do everything in our power to support and empower voter engagement among our employees and the public.”
Live Nation is partnering with several organizations as part of its support of voting in the upcoming elections. It is working with More Than A Vote, Civic Alliance, Power the Polls and HeadCount. More Than A Vote, a coalition of Black athletes and artists dedicated to the protection of voting rights, is helping to convert the spaces chosen to host polling. Power the Polls is helping support Live Nation employees to participate as volunteers at their local polling station (and identifying areas in need of volunteers), while HeadCount promotes voter registration and participation in democracy using music to inspire.
“By converting their concert venues into voting locations, Live Nation is creating a safe and convenient way for people to exercise their right to vote this fall,” said Michael Tyler, EVP of Public Affairs More Than A Vote. “Similar to the sports arenas More Than A Vote has worked to convert into voting locations, many of Live Nation’s venues are located in the heart of the communities that we are committed to empowering in this election and offer the same COVID protections due to their large capacity.”