- Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes was one of the driving forces behind turning the team's stadium into a polling station, team President Mark Donovan said.
- Mahomes and other important figures within the Chiefs organization had floated the idea of using the stadium as a voting location, but faced a number of problems before being able to do so.
- One of the key issues, Donovan said, was that turning the stadium into a polling place required the purchase of new voting machines.
- Mahomes and the Chiefs spent a combined "six-figure" sum on buying 25 new vote machines and paying the wages of poll workers.
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Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes was one of the driving forces behind turning the team's stadium into a polling station, and even helped to fund the purchase of new voting machines to make it happen.
That's according to Mark Donovan, the president of the Chiefs, who told reporters on Tuesday that the 2020 Superbowl MVP was key in getting plans to turn Arrowhead Stadium into a place where citizens of Kansas City could vote.
Mahomes and other important figures within the Chiefs organization had floated the idea of using the stadium as a voting location, but faced a number of problems before being able to do so.
One of the key issues, Donovan said, was that turning the stadium into a polling place required the purchase of new voting machines.
It was at this point that Mahomes and the Chiefs stepped in, spending what Donovan said was a "six-figure" sum to fund the new machines, according to a CNN account of Donovan's comments.
"We, the Chiefs organization, [team owners] the Hunt family and Patrick Mahomes and his 15 and the Mahomies Foundation came together and said: 'If that's what it's going to take, we're committed to this point. Let's go.'"
"A six-figure investment by us that not only will legitimately impact the community today but will impact this community for years and years to come — hopefully 10 years to come — where these machines will continue to be used," he continued, per CNN.
According to local news station KSHB 41, Mahomes and the Chiefs funded around 25 voting machines and also paid the wages of 30 poll workers.
"I thought it was very important not only just to get as many people out to vote as possible, but also to use a place as Arrowhead where we have a lot of fun, show a lot of love and unity where people coming together, and use that as a place where we can come together and vote and use our voice," Mahomes said on NFL podcast Huddle and Flow.
"I thought Arrowhead was the perfect place."
Voters registered in Jackson County, Missouri, were able to vote at Arrowhead.
Missouri voted by around 57% to 41% in favor of President Donald Trump ahead of Democratic challenger Joe Biden, according to Insider and Decision Desk HQ.
In Jackson County, Biden won around 60% of the vote, compared to Trump's 38%, according to CNN.
On Tuesday, Kansas City Election Board Republican Director Shawn Kieffer said he expected between 2,500 to 5,000 people to vote using the polling station, according to KSHB 41.
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