More Than A Vote / NAACP Legal Defense: We Got Next

More Than A Vote and the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) formally launched the ‘We Got Next’ campaign aimed at recruiting young people to serve as poll workers during the 2020 general election. The organisations launched the campaign with an ad that will premier tonight during Game two of the NBA Eastern Conference Finals along with More Than A Vote and LDF webpages directing users to sign up to serve as poll workers. Both the websites and digital advertising will directly link users to sign up via Power the Polls. We Got Next combines the cultural influence of the MTAV athletes and artists with LDF’s resources and long-standing voting rights expertise and community engagement in a nonpartisan effort to recruit young activists to work at polling locations in vulnerable Black communities across the nation with a focus on Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Mississippi, Ohio, Texas, and Wisconsin. The growing poll worker shortage is particularly dire in communities of colour, where voters already face inadequate voting infrastructure. The traditional pool of poll workers relies heavily on older Americans — the very population most at-risk to coronavirus. Nearly 60 percent of poll workers are senior citizens or retirees. The Covid-related shortage already caused problems during the second half of the primary season and threatens to jeopardise equitable voting opportunities in the general election.