.png&width=32&height=32&type=webp)
The University of Mississippi Athletics
Voting Costs Lions' Pritchett More Than $1,000
11/8/2004 | Football
Nov. 8, 2004
(AP) - Long lines cost some voters time on Election Day. Former Ole Miss and current Detroit Lions defensive tackle Kelvin Pritchett's vote cost more than $1,000.
On Monday night, he flew to Florida, rented a car and stayed at a hotel. Tuesday morning, he got up, found his polling place and cast his ballot. Tuesday afternoon, he flew back to Detroit. Was voting the only reason for the trip?
"Only reason," Pritchett told the Detroit Free Press. "Went to vote and came right back."
Pritchett, who earned three letters while playing at Ole Miss and was a co-captain of the 1990 Rebel squad which finished 9-3 and played Michigan in the Gator Bowl, estimates the trip cost him $1,100 to $1,200. He makes $785,600 this season.
"It was really, really special, because a lot of people have sacrificed their lives and gone to the extreme so that I would have the right to vote," Pritchett said. "I feel like it's just my duty as a man, as a black man, to do the right thing, and that's to vote."
Pritchett played for the Jacksonville Jaguars in 1995-98 and was registered in Jacksonville. He intended to get an absentee ballot but a friend forgot to pick it up for him. So he had to do what he had to do.
"It's a very expensive lesson," said Pritchett, who declined to reveal who he voted for.
