On Election Day, most people perform their civic duty in familiar settings such as recreation centers, schools, libraries or church basements. However, some find themselves at more unorthodox polling places – such as their local laundromat.
For example, among the more than 4,500 polling places in Los Angeles County, some Long Beach residents can choose to bring along their dirty laundry with them when they vote, since their polling place is the local self-service laundry, Super Suds Laundromat.
In addition, San Francisco voters also can knock off two tasks in one stop at popular laundry business Get the Funk Out, also doubling as a polling location.
In Chicago, Su Nueva Lavanderia in the West Lawn neighborhood has served as its area’s polling site for several elections. “People have learned over the years not to do their laundry on Election Day,” Chicago poll worker Mary Zintak told Medill News Service. “We take up a lot of space.”
What’s more, Bakers Centre Laundry and The Laundry Café, both located in Philadelphia, are just a couple of laundries that have been instrumental in voter registration drives.
And, as more laundry owners continue to view their businesses as true community centers and look to their operations as opportunities to make a difference in the neighborhoods they serve, perhaps the concept of a local laundromat as a local polling site will become more mainstream.
Did your laundry business serve a polling place for today’s election? If so, we’d love to know how it went.
