Have you always wanted to vote in your favorite pub instead of a high school auditorium? At Buddy’s Houston in Harris County, Texas, you can vote now! The restaurant bar has recently made history and transformed itself into a polling place for the presidential election. It is the world’s first known presidential polling place in an LGBTQ+ bar, according to The Houston Chronicle.
“All Harris County registered voters can vote at BUDDY’S #Vote (7:00-7:00 a.m.),” a Facebook update revealed with a picture of the bar filled with 14 socially distant voting booths.
Many Facebook users praised the bar’s democratic aspirations. “This is simply amazing. Thank you for doing this,” one user wrote. “I really wish I could have cast my vote there. I was too worried that a last-minute delay would prevent this, so I voted early,” added another.
“The best thing I’ve seen all year,” a third Facebook user commented. Someone else said he felt a blue wave was coming soon.
The Harris County clerk also applauded Buddy’s Houston. “We’re not an ordinary county, we’re a *cool* county,” wrote the county’s Twitter page, horsing around on an iconic line about mean girls.
We are not a regular district, we are a *cool* district. https://t.co/rB6wsuC3q9
– Harris County Clerk (@HarrisVotes) November 3, 2020
The election workers at Buddy’s speak several languages, including English, Spanish, Vietnamese, Chinese and Indonesian. Buddy’s Houston is open for voting until 19:00 CST.
The idea of converting a gay bar into a polling station has been occupying bar owner Christopher Barry for some time. He told Outsmart Magazine about his plan to go one step further than just partying in a bar on election day. “I’ve watched parties in gay bars, and I’ve celebrated in the streets on election night. I thought, “What is the most productive thing I could do this year? It was literally a light bulb that went out,” Barry told LGBTQ+ magazine on Wednesday.
Barry explained that he had been investigating whether or not gay bars had in the past turned into polling stations on election day. When he discovered after intensive research that no gay bar had done this before, he wanted his to be the first. “I started working on it and did not tell a soul about it for four months. I didn’t want it to be bewitched,” he confessed.
The Hill reported that Harris County’s four million-strong population has recently been leaning more toward the Democratic Party. Over 1.1 million early ballots have already been cast in the district. Harris County also reported that over 100,000 votes were cast on the morning of election day itself, and more are expected to be cast.
To date, more than 100,000 votes have already been cast in Harris County. THEY MUST NOT STOP VOTING. For the nearest voting center, please visit https://t.co/s3HBl2J9bW. #HarrisVotes #HouNews pic.twitter.com/pujpQEzWHS
– Harris County Clerk (@HarrisVotes) November 3, 2020
Washington Newsday asked Buddy’s Houston for a comment and received no response at the time of publication.
