The NBA star is doing what he can to get people to the polls.
LeBron James is doing what he can to bring people to the polls. The NBA star is helping to spearhead a multimillion-dollar effort to recruit poll workers ahead of the election in November.
More Than a Vote -- which focuses on recruiting poll workers in Black communities and electoral districts through a paid advertising campaign and a corporate partnership program that encourages employees to volunteer -- aims to combat systemic voter suppression, according to multiple reports.
Offset, Toni Braxton, Allyson Felix and more stars have also thrown their support behind the initiative, which James opened up about last week.
Wearing a More Than a Vote T-shirt inside the NBA's quarantined campus in Orlando, Florida, he told reporters, "There are a lot of people who grew up in the inner city who are afraid to vote."
"We're giving everyone the tools, outlets," he added, per ABC News.
"We know how important November is, but more importantly even past November because it doesn't stop," James continued. "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 [to] create mental wealth for generations to come."
More Than a Vote emerged in June amid global protests following the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery. It has partnered with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, When We All Vote, Fair Fight and the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition.
Polling locations across the United States are facing a potential worker shortage amid the pandemic, so one of the goals of More Than a Vote is to recruit younger, healthier poll workers to prevent older, more vulnerable volunteers from putting themselves at risk.
More Than a Vote is also working to transform sports arenas left vacant by the pandemic into massive polling locations -- a model that was used in Kentucky's primary elections in June with relative success. So far, James has worked with the Los Angeles Dodgers to turn its stadium into a polling station for November's general election. The initiative has also joined forces with stadiums in Atlanta, Cleveland, Charlotte, Detroit, and Sacramento.
See more on James in the video below.
Election Day is Nov. 3, 2020 -- head over to Vote.org to register to vote and to get all the latest information.
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