Rewind to 2020. During the presidential election that year, an unprecedented series of challenges shaped the electoral landscape: a global pandemic, rampant misinformation, voter intimidation, and multiple efforts to disenfranchise millions of Black voters. Recognizing Americans’ love of sports and need for support during a challenging time, athletes, coaches, and athletic conferences used their influence to meet that historic moment by leveraging their platforms for voter education and mobilization.
Now, as voters prepare to cast their ballots in the 2024 general election, they may similarly encounter hurdles designed to limit their access to the ballot box. The sports world should again serve voters by actively working to help ensure that the constitutional right to vote is available and accessible to all eligible voters — especially Black voters, who are disproportionately denied the ballot.
In 2020, voters faced a global pandemic, which changed the way elections were administered in the United States. At the same time, historically marginalized groups were contending with an onslaught of voter suppression laws designed to diminish their political power after a 2013 Supreme Court decision weakened a key provision of the Voting Rights Act.
Amid 2020’s challenging circumstances — and alongside impassioned protests and advocacy for racial justice following the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery — the sports world recognized the importance of athletes participating in the political process and encouraging other voters to do the same. As part of these efforts, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Student Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC), an organization that represents student-athlete voices in NCAA governance, introduced a rule to promote civic engagement by prohibiting college athletic games and practices from being held on Election Day, which the NCAA then adopted ahead of the 2020 presidential election. The rule was the culmination of a critical effort to encourage civic participation spearheaded by student-athletes themselves, along with coaches and university administrators.
In 2022, the rule was amended on SAAC’s recommendation to provide greater flexibility for athletic teams to compete in the fall season: Instead of requiring athletes to take Election Day off, the updated rule requires that athletes have a day off for civic engagement activities in the 15 days before or after Election Day. As one example of these activities, in 2022 hundreds of Tulane University athletes teamed up with LDF and a Louisiana partner and voter engagement nonprofit, Power Coalition for Equity and Justice, to support voter outreach and election protection efforts in New Orleans.
In an interview for this article, Mikayla Paquette, a Tufts University women’s basketball player and former engaged athlete fellow with The Team, a nonprofit focused on integrating college student athletics with civic engagement, stresses the importance of athlete-directed civic engagement work. “It’s essential for student-athletes to engage and be civic leaders on our campuses because we have the unique opportunity of being very visible on campus. It is both a privilege and a responsibility,” she says. “Just like on the basketball court, it is essential to always put the team first. It is the same with our democracy: We all have to take pride in our roles and prioritize our community with care.”
Tufts Women’s Basketball Player and former Engaged Athlete Fellow
2020 also saw LeBron James — the NBA’s all-time leading scorer who currently plays for the Los Angeles Lakers — launch More Than a Vote (MTAV), a nonpartisan organization that encourages professional athletes to leverage their platforms to promote social justice and political participation. Recognizing the unique platform of professional athletes and artists in American culture, MTAV partnered with LDF to address poll worker shortages by creating an innovative PSA to recruit young volunteers to step in and work the polls during the pandemic. LDF and MTAV combined the cultural influence of MTAV athletes and artists with LDF’s long-standing voting rights expertise to advance nonpartisan recruiting efforts. Together, these two organizations recruited over 10,000 people to become poll workers in the first two weeks after the initiative was launched.
Moreover, furthering its commitment to support political participation, in 2020 the NBA opened arenas across the country to serve as voting locations. The large space provided by these arenas allowed for social distancing to accommodate voters’ health concerns during the pandemic.
Fast forward a few years. Although we are no longer in a global pandemic, voters — especially Black voters — are still confronting multiple challenges. They continue to contend with attempts at voter suppression designed to obstruct their ability to cast their ballots and make their voices heard. As one example, since 2021 mass voter challenges have been employed to question the validity of voters’ registration prior to an election. In Georgia, for instance, any registered voter can file an unlimited number of voter challenges with their local election board to allege that certain people on the voter rolls are not eligible to vote, even if those challenges are based on incorrect, inaccurate, or insufficient information. Throughout the United States, 300,000 challenges have been filed since 2020, resulting in voters having to navigate cumbersome requirements to verify their registration status.
Moreover, scheduling conflicts have also detrimentally affected voters, including athlete voters. For example, Louisiana’s gubernatorial election, which occurred on Oct. 14, 2023, conflicted with several major athletic events around the state, dampening voter turnout.
Despite persistent and ongoing challenges, athletes, coaches, and nonprofits have doubled down on their commitment to advancing political participation by encouraging all eligible voters to cast ballots in the upcoming election. For instance, in response to the 2023 calendar conflict in Louisiana, LDF, The Team, and Power Coalition for Equity and Justice have asked universities across the state to take more proactive measures to schedule games and other events on dates that do not conflict with state elections. Specifically, the groups are calling on schools, including Louisiana State University and Southern University, to ensure that students, faculty, and staff do not have to make costly trade-offs between engaging in the election process or participating in coveted school events, like homecoming. This proactive calendaring approach goes beyond the requirements of NCAA’s rule and asks schools to carefully consider their state’s election schedules when they are planning for upcoming sports seasons.
Many student-athletes believe these adjustments are critical. “The proposed measures have the potential to truly make a difference in encouraging students and student-athletes to participate in the electoral process,” says Caleb Kenney, a College of the Holy Cross men’s basketball player, former engaged athlete fellow, and program coordinator at The Team. “Often, students and student-athletes are forced to weigh opportunity costs when deciding which initiatives to get involved with … Removing this scenario through proactive calendaring provides students and student-athletes with the comfort of knowing they can engage in the process without feeling like they are sacrificing other parts of their schedule.”
Beyond just calendaring changes, the groups, like The Team, are taking it a step further. They are engaging with student-athletes on university campuses to host civic engagement initiatives — like voter registration drives and digital campaigns at major academic, alumni, or athletic events — to encourage people to cast their ballots during the early voting period. Student-athletes are also taking matters into their own hands. They are redefining the role of Name, Image, and Likeness — a recently established NCAA rule that allows students to capitalize on the public use of their name and image — by employing their social media accounts to share important voter education information, including voter registration deadlines.
Furthermore, under the leadership of Nneka Ogwumike, a Seattle Storm Player and nine-time WNBA All Star, More Than a Vote has rebooted its nonpartisan voter empowerment work with a focus on women’s rights and reproductive freedom. Current WNBA players participating in this effort include Brittney Griner, A’ja Wilson, and Cameron Brink, among others. Notably, WNBA alumni and legends Lisa Leslie and Sheryl Swoopes are also engaged in this work.
There is no limit to what can be accomplished when the sports world leverages its platform to encourage political participation in the current election season and beyond. LDF also remains firmly committed to supporting these initiatives and amplifying the voices of students and student-athletes in their calls for community-wide political participation.
Bryce Harris, a Howard University Men’s Basketball player, tells LDF that these types of strategic partnerships epitomize democracy-building in action. “The proactive measures proposed by advocacy organizations like LDF and others are essential in encouraging students, especially athletes, to engage in the electoral process. These initiatives not only help us fulfill our duties as citizens, but also bring our community closer together around shared values.”
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