Thank you for turning in to another episode of the Bakari Sellers podcast.

We've got my good friend and colleague from CNN and mentor David Axelrod with us on today's

episode. But before I get to our conversation with

David, I wanted to talk about the recent news that surfaced last week that

MBA Hall of Famer and NBA on T&T commentator.

Shaquille O'Neil voted for the first time this election.

I'm sure I wasn't the only one who was initially shocked by the news because the shack that I see a successful entrepreneur, a

multimillionaire, someone with a doctorate and education and someone who

once said they would run for sheriff of Henry County, Georgia, doesn't fit the profile in my head of an infrequent voter.

But let's put this news into context.

During the 2012 election, 66% of eligible black Americans cast a ballot. the with Barack Obama on the ballot, about one-third of black folks we know were just like

Shaq and didn't vote.

And about 40% of those of us that were eligible to vote didn't vote every single year and the rate of folks who don't

vote is far higher in state and local elections in off years when there's no big

election like a presidential election.

Before Chris Paul got NBA players engaged almost 80% 80% of NBA

percent of NBA players were not registered to vote. Colin Kappernik told us a long time ago he wasn't even

registered to vote. So Shaq is among the millions of Americans who don't vote or who are infrequent voters.

These are voters that if they turn out can turn any election.

But for whatever reason, they often choose the couch every election. And it's because infrequent voters are so

important in democratic politics in particular that I thought a lot of the

responses to shack were head scratches. Well I understand the frustration we'd all be better served by

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