One of the biggest problems facing November’s Presidential elections (aside from voter suppression, missing mailboxes, and Russian interference) is the impending lack of poll workers that are going to want to work voting locations out of fear of contracting the coronavirus.
Luckily, LeBron James has become the kind of athelete-activist we need in today’s day and age and after launching the More Than A Vote organization to help educate people on how to vote and it’s importance, the King is now focused on making sure enough people are available to count the millions of votes that will surely be cast come November 3rd. ABC News is reporting that King James noticed the shortage of volunteers of poll workers in Black communities during the primaries in Atlanta and Milwaukee earlier this year and is launching a multi-million dollar campaign to help to ensure the same doesn’t happen when the future of this country is on the line in two months.
The new initiative seeks to confront the shortage of election volunteers, particularly in communities of color. Atlanta is majority Black, according to U.S. Census data, and Milwaukee County is home to 69.4% of Wisconsin’s African American population, according to the most recent data cited by state’s Department of Health Services.
LeBron’s involvement in politics is nothing new as he campaigned for Hillary Clinton during her 2016 Presidential campaign and even came under fire by far-right Fox News personality Laura Ingram who said LeBron should “shut up and dribble” after he criticized Donald Trump’s Presidency. Luckily for us LeBron is a man of integrity, intelligence, morals and responsibility and knows that his voice and influence can move millions to make change, and will do what he can to motivate them to do so.
“We know how important November is, but more importantly even past November because it doesn’t stop,” James said last week. “We don’t want it to stop. We want to continue to put our foot on the gas and continue to learn and continue to educate ourselves, because when we don’t it trickles down to the next generation — because knowledge is power and when you don’t have knowledge the kids that come after us, they don’t have it and it trickles down from generation to generation to generation. So I want create mental wealth for generations to come.”
Props, King.
While this racist administration continues to steal mailboxes from our streets to prevent mail-in ballots from being cast and requiring voter I.D.’s just to let people exercise their right to vote, people like LeBron give us a glimmer of hope and hopefully the masses will walk through the door he’s opening up for us.