PORTLAND, Ore. (October 9, 2020) – The Portland Trail Blazers, with support from Multnomah County, held a free Rip City Votes Kit Pickup event at Moda Center on Thursday, October 8 and Friday, October 9 to spread the word and encourage fans to register and vote. The Trail Blazers are committed to getting out the vote and believe civic participation is one of the most critical components of a democracy that works best when everyone participates.
Fans, partners, community groups and season ticket holders across Oregon and Southwest Washington were invited to drive through Moda Center’s Garden Garage to pick up their kit filled with custom Trail Blazers Vote 2020 gear, including a yard sign, sticker, button and educational voting materials, while promoting to fans to check their voter registration status, sign up for voting reminders and taking the 2020 Census at trailblazers.com/vote. Over 3,000 Rip City Votes Kits were distributed at the event.
Fans were welcomed by Blaze the Trail Cat, BlazerDancers and music from DJ O.G. One. In addition, Multnomah County Chair Deborah Kafoury was in attendance to get out the vote. To ensure the safety of fans and staff, fans were required to stay in their cars throughout the pickup event and staff wore masks at all times, increased handwashing and stayed home if they were feeling ill. To ensure contactless delivery, fans were asked to roll down their windows so a Trail Blazers representative could place the kit(s) in their backseat.
Images of the event can be found HERE.
In addition to the Rip City Votes Kit Pickup event, the Trail Blazers have committed to a number of different initiatives to promote voting and increase voter turnout. This includes:
- Selling an official Trail Blazers Vote T-shirt with 100 percent of the net proceeds being donated to Next Up, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization based out of Portland encouraging young people to be involved in civic engagement and to register to vote.
- Partnering with non-partisan nonprofits and state and county agencies to amplify their outreach efforts.
- Creating weekly content series to share relevant voting content leading up to the national election and support with ongoing promotional messaging.
- Engaging Trail Blazers personalities in campaign videos and voting messaging.
- Encouraging and educating employees to participate in voting by closing the office on November 3 and communicating important deadlines.