Booker, Taurasi encourage voting
Their first collaborative PSA called for people to register to vote.
Now that today’s Arizona voter registration deadline is here, the Phoenix Suns and Phoenix Mercury posted a second PSA to encourage voter participation for the Nov. 3 election.
Mercury All-Star Diana Taurasi and Suns All-Star Devin Booker are featured in this second PSA along with Frank Kaminsky III, Mikal Bridges and Cam Johnson.
“I’m sure a lot of people think there’s 300 million-plus Americans out there, so tons and tons of voters might think my vote specifically doesn’t count, doesn’t mean much, but it does,” Johnson said. “It does, man. As soon as we all come together and vote and put in the right people we feel will promote positivity and the change that we need in the offices, I think the better our society will be.”
The Suns and Mercury partnered with Maricopa County Elections Department to establish Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum as a voting center and drive-through drop box location for Maricopa County voters for the Nov. 3 election.
The voting opportunities at “Madhouse on McDowell” are as follows:
Oct. 24: Drive-through drop box only (9 a.m. – 5 p.m.).
Oct. 31: Drive-through drop box only (9 a.m. – 5 p.m.).
Nov. 1: Drive-through drop box only (10 a.m. – 5 p.m.).
Nov. 2: Drive-through drop box (9 a.m. – 5 p.m.): In-person voting (10 a.m. – 5 p.m.).
Nov. 3: Election Day: In-person voting/drive through drop box (6 a.m. – 7 p.m.).
“I know that we live in a state that is dominant Republican, but I think it’s important whether you’re an athlete or no matter what your profession is that you take an interest in what the issues are and what’s going on not only in our city and our state, but in our country and in the world,” Mercury vice president Ann Meyers Drysdale said.
NBA and WNBA players have been encouraging people to vote as part of the call for social justice. They’ve also taken heed to their own message as NBPA president Chris Paul announced during Game 3 of the NBA Finals that “over 90% of our league” are registered to vote.
“Fifteen teams are 100% registered,” the Oklahoma All-Star point guard continued during the ABC telecast. “The job that guys have been doing to be more educated on the situation and getting people out and recruiting poll workers, the bubble has been an unbelievable blessing, our players are continuing to do the work and we are grateful and we are going to keep working.”
NBPA executive director Michele A. Roberts has since clarified in an interview with Shams Charania of The Athletic that the union’s goal is to get “every single player who is eligible to vote” to register.
“There may be one or two players that on principal grounds don’t want to,” she said. “But every time I am given a name of someone who’s not registered and I, or someone on my staff, contacts them, they say, ‘ Oh, my bad,” and they do it.”
Suns officials confirm all of the Suns players who are eligible to vote are registered to vote, but a handful of their players aren’t U.S. citizens.