LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers won’t take the court again until Friday night but LeBron will have a major presence on the airwaves during tonight’s Game 2 between the Miami Heat and Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals. ‘More Than A Vote’ will release a brand new advertisement on Thursday that will also serve as a call to action for young people to volunteer as poll workers during the upcoming election.
The commercial, entitled “We Got Next,” is narrated by Portland Trail Blazers guard CJ McCollum. McCollum issued a joint statement with Chiney Ogwumike of ESPN and the WNBA as well, illustrating the importance of young people volunteering as poll workers, as the COVID-19 pandemic has caused older people, who usually make up the majority of the volunteers, bow out due to being high-risk.
“COVID has made the inadequate voting infrastructure that many Black people already deal with in a normal year an even greater challenge to overcome in 2020,” said Portland Trail Blazers Guard CJ McCollum and WNBA All-Star Chiney Ogwumike in a joint statement for More Than A Vote. “That’s why More Than A Vote focused on converting dormant sports arenas and stadiums into voting locations and it’s why we’re now asking young people to step up and serve as poll workers in our communities. COVID understandably scared off a lot of older poll workers, but if we do our job we can fill the void with the young people who have been demanding change all summer and make sure no vote is suppressed due to long lines or confusion at the polls on Election Day.
The “We Got Next” campaign is part of a concentrated effort by “More Than A Vote” to staff polling locations with young activists, especially “at polling locations in vulnerable Black communities across the nation with a focus on Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Mississippi, Ohio, Texas, and Wisconsin.”
