A group of athletes led by NBA star LeBron James will launch a multimillion-dollar program in the coming weeks to recruit poll workers in heavily black constituencies for the November election, a person familiar with the plans said Monday.
More Than a Vote, a group of prominent athletes fighting voter suppression, will partner with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund on the program in a dozen states, including battlefields such as Georgia, Michigan, Florida and Wisconsin, where the deprivation of civil rights affects black voters, the source said.
The New York Times first reported the effort, which will recruit young people as survey workers and include a paid advertising program and corporate partnership to encourage employees to volunteer as survey workers.
A shortage of polling workers for in-person voting site staff amid concerns over the coronavirus pandemic has led to significantly fewer polling stations in some states that held primaries earlier this year, including Georgia and Wisconsin. This has led to long lines, hours of waiting, and widespread confusion, particularly in hard-hit African American communities that have suffered the brunt of the cuts.
Problems and concerns about what the November 3 election could mean for Republican President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden has led to the formation of More Than a Vote by James, star of the Los Angeles Lakers, and other athletes.
The program will begin in Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin, Florida, Ohio, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, South Carolina and Texas, the source said.
The group had previously partnered with teams in Los Angeles and Atlanta to turn stadiums into polling stations and worked on an effort to help ex-inmates restore their voting rights in Florida.
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