First-time voters, youโre not alone.
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While Republicans would love nothing more than for you to stay your ass home on Election Day, there are plenty of you who will be casting a ballot for the very first time. And to the surprise of manyโmyself includedโamong that number is NBA legend-turned-serial pitchman, Shaquille OโNeal.
On the latest episode of The Big Podcast With Shaq, the 48-year-old admitted that heโs finally done something that heโs never done before: vote.
โLadies and gentlemen, I have a confession,โ he began. โYou know I always like being honest on my podcast. Iโve never voted before, America. But now Iโm doing all these voting campaigns, and you know one thing I never like to do is be a hypocrite. So the other day, I got my absentee ballot. [...] In other words America, I voted for the first time, and it feels good.
โIโm honest. Iโve never voted before in my life. This is my first time voting. I promise you.โ
Taking his age into account, this news definitely comes as a shock. But as we learned recently during the NBAโs restart, only 20 percent of eligible NBA players voted in the last electionโeven though weโve seen them wearing โVOTEโ warmups on the sidelines during every game.
Having NBA players be so vocal about voting rights and political engagement while not following suit themselves hasnโt exactly sat well with fans. It was also something that former Los Angeles Temecula Clippers coach Doc Rivers felt compelled to address in August.
โIn the meeting, it came up,โ Rivers told reporters. โโLetโs walk the walk. We canโt just do the talk.โ And itโs all the players. I think it was like 20 percent of the players voted in the last election or something like that and [...] weโre going to get them registered here in the bubble. We are going to try to get every team registered, every player registered to vote.
โItโs so difficult for players because most of the time itโs in the middle of the season, and players are from so many different states, that itโs a lot of absentee voting. And weโre going to get them all done. We want to get it up in the 80s, 90s, 100, if possible, percentile as far as players and coaches voting.โ
This election is more important than ever so itโs a relief to hear that both Shaq and NBA players are doing their part to ensure that their voice will be heard.
For more info on how you can register to vote and do the same, hit up vote.gov.
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