Jordan Elects to Finally Register

Michael Jordan has achieved legendary status playing college, Olympic and professional basketball, assumed global celebrity, lent his name to a sneaker and earned millions of dollars.

At 36, what he has never done is vote.

But that seems likely to change. For the first time, Jordan is eligible to cast a ballot.

On Thursday afternoon, the Lake County, Ill. clerk, Willard Helander, traveled one hour by car from her office in Waukegan, near the Wisconsin border, to a Chicago skyscraper, where she registered Jordan. Jordan’s Highland Park home is in Lake County; Helander enrolled him at his office.

“I asked him if he had ever been registered in any other jurisdiction,” she said. “And he said, ‘Never. My wife has been after me for years.’ ”

Illinois registrations do not include a declaration of party affiliation. Nevertheless, Helander suspected a reason for Jordan’s decision to jump in the voting pool: He made a $1,000 donation earlier this year to Sen. Bill Bradley’s bid for the Democratic Presidential nomination.

His former coach on the Chicago Bulls--Phil Jackson, now with the Lakers--is a close friend of Bradley’s and active with the campaign, and he has urged Jordan to get involved as well.

A petition to get Bradley on the Illinois ballot happened to be circulating at nearby Daley Plaza.

“Are you going to sign the petition?” Helander recalled asking Jordan, who answered, “I already did.”

Now his signature won’t be invalidated.