LeBron James Leads Multi-Million Dollar Effort To Find Poll Workers

NBA star LeBron James is acting on his promise to protect our voting rights.

James, among other sports athletes, launched the organization More Than a Vote to help protect voting rights by fighting systemic, racist voter suppression.

Now, the organization is launching a campaign to find voting poll workers for the upcoming November election, CBS News reports.

More Than A Vote and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund (LDF) partnered to start the initiative and confirmed its multi-million dollar plan on Wednesday.

Janell Byrd-Chichester, the director of LDF’s Thurgood Marshall Institute, says they aim to find young people to work at the polls in several vulnerable black communities, including Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Texas, and South Carolina.

“Bringing together the cultural influence of the [More Than a Vote] athletes and artists with LDF’s resources and long-standing community engagement, the campaign will seek to connect the spirit of the Black Lives Matter protest to the responsibility of young people to step up and fight voter suppression across the United States,” Byrd-Chichester said in a statement.

Another goal of the campaign is to get employers to honor the Election Day as a vacation day so employees can go out and vote or in this case, serve as poll workers.

Due to COVID-19, there are concerns that there will be a shortage of poll workers across the nation. Some states have worked tediously to get out mail-in ballots, although voters are still showing up at polls to cast votes. But one issue is that some polls have been consolidated and has resulted in long lines and delays. This year is expected to bring a record turnout.

“November is right around the corner, and it’s a big moment for us as Americans,” James said as he urged the importance of voting this upcoming election. “We talk about we want better, we want change, and we will have (that opportunity).”

The organization has done great things already, one being its partnership with the Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles and several NBA arenas to convert them into polling sites.