Priscilla Moreno cruised into the lineup for the Mavericks’ drive-through voter registration on Tuesday.
Moments later, she was done. And for the first time in her 25 years, she was an official voter in the United States.
“I’ve never voted,” Moreno said. “And for me, it was an opportunity. I was like, hey, what’s stopping me? I live here. I’m a U.S. citizen. What’s stopping me from voting?
“My parents are immigrants and I’m like: I need a voice. I need to help make change. Let me go ahead and do this and go for it. It was super-easy and very quick.”
And Moreno was exactly the kind of person the Mavericks were trying to help on Tuesday.
She was one of about 200 Dallas county residents who got registered to vote in the Mavericks’ drive-through registration opportunity at the team’s business office on Stemmons, across from the American Airlines Center.
The weather didn’t help the cause. Cool temperatures and an on-again, off-again rain kept vehicular traffic down.
But the bottom line is whether 10 or 10,000 people came through the registration opportunity, it was a success to help people have a voice.
“This is an awesome thing the Mavericks are doing – just giving the community, people in Dallas county, the opportunity to register to vote,” said Michael Finley, the Mavericks’ vice president of basketball operations, who was on hand for much of the drive-through experience. “It’s important that the community see that the Mavericks have their best interest in mind, not only the community, but the country. To give you the opportunity to register, educate yourself on voting, I think it’s a great thing.”
As Finley said, the Mavericks made it as simple as possible.
It took less than a couple minutes to fill out the paperwork and people who registered got a nice swag-bag of Mavericks’ goodies.
It could not have been easier. People could stay in their cars, out of the weather and continue to wear their masks.
“It’s so important to be able to offer this service to the community because that’s truly what it’s about,” Mavericks CEO Cynt Marshall said. “It’s about really giving the community an opportunity to engage in their civic activity.
“Our workplace promise at the Mavs is every voice matters. And everybody belongs. This is truly about every voice matters, because your vote is your voice.”
Another Dallasite, Jack Roberts, said he heard about the drive-through registration on the news Sunday night.
“I was going to the library and fill out all that,” Roberts said. “But this is a piece of cake. Just wear your mask.
“I heard about it Sunday night, a quick blip on the news. I watch ABC and I heard it, and I googled it. We need change. If you don’t have a voice, you’re not going to get change. And you can’t complain.”
The Mavericks brought in March To The Polls, a local organization that is designed to help people register to vote, to assist in the event.
Richard Marcus, the co-founder for March To The Polls, was on hand for Tuesday’s event and said that the number of people registering was important.
“What the Mavericks are doing is amazing,” Marcus said. “The flow, the way the Mavericks have done it, and the enthusiasm of the people, it’s really great.
“We measure it one voter at a time. People who normally don’t exercise their right, we don’t tell them how to vote. We just tell them, whatever you believe, do it.”
March to the Polls began in 2015 and is strategically centered on high-school seniors. But getting any young people to register to vote is critical to the organization’s philosophy.
As Marshall said: “People literally died so that we could vote. We have to remember that. We have to honor that. Let’s make sure they didn’t die in vain.”
Twitter: @ESefko
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