Detroit Restaurants Support Poll Workers, Voters on Election Day

Photo by Salwan Georges/The Washington Post via Getty Images

Local restaurants are giving employees the day off to cast ballots and providing free meals to people running polling sites

Going into a crucial Election Day on Tuesday, November 3, Detroit restaurants are pitching in to help make voting easier and long lines at the polls more bearable.

Supino Pizzeria in Eastern Market announced to followers on social media that the restaurant will be closed during regular business hours on Tuesday, to provide employees with time to vote. The restaurant is joining many restaurants nationwide, both big and small, in 2020 by giving workers the day off to cast a vote.

While many people have chosen to cast absentee ballots during this pandemic election cycle either by mailing them in or dropping them off in a box at a local election site, some people are braving the lines at the polls to ensure their vote is counted.

In anticipation of some long lines and long, daunting days ahead for poll workers, chef Max Hardy of Coop at the Detroit Shipping Company, is partnering with the Horatio Williams Foundation to provide 300 free breakfast and lunch meals to multiple polling locations throughout the city between 7 a.m. and 3 p.m. on Election Day.

“Though our team likes to donate meals to those in need in our community as much as we can, this cause is very special to me,” Hardy says in a release. “Not only are voters and poll workers taking time out of their schedules to make this happen, but the circumstances are different this year due to the pandemic. I commend all who are working together to ensure everyone is safe and that all votes are counted this election.”

People who still need to turn in their absentee ballots should at this point skip mailing them in and instead deliver them to one of 30 drop box sites or 23 satellite voting centers throughout Detroit. The polls in Michigan are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Election Day, but early voting is also an option. Check the status of a mail-in ballot online through Ballottrax.

Eater is part of Vox Media. Find more coverage of the 2020 election across its other 13 networks: how to vote, in-depth analysis, and how policies will affect you, your state and the country over the next four years and beyond.

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