LeBron James’ voting advocacy group plans to recruit thousands of poll workers in Democrat districts for the upcoming 2020 elections in November.
James’ More Than A Vote voter registration group — which boasts a list of his fellow pro athletes as members — announced a cooperative effort with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund to recruit poll workers to preside over elections in black communities in states including Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, and Wisconsin, NBC reported.
The new effort is in addition to efforts launched with pro teams in Atlanta, Cleveland, Charlotte, Detroit, Los Angeles, and Sacramento to turn sports stadiums into polling places. James’ group also donated $100,000 to activists working to restore the vote to convicted felons in Florida.
WNBA player Renee Montgomery praised the group’s efforts in Atlanta and claimed that she and James are trying to stop “voter suppression.”
“We have the long lines, it’s condensed, and COVID is being used as a way to have voter suppression,” Montgomery said of Atlanta.
James launched his More Than A Vote organization in June only a few weeks after the police-involved death of Minneapolis man George Floyd.
James has insisted that his group is meant to fight “voter suppression” in the black community.
However, claims that “voter suppression” is striking at black voters is a dubious claim. Election statistics not only show that black voters have a higher participation rate than white voters, but black turnout has grown every election year since 1990.
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