Members of the student organization Project Geaux did not stopworking when they completed their voting drive with 1,200-plus newvoters in East Baton Rouge Parish.
Instead, they sponsored buses to bring people from the Union tothe polls for absentee voting on four days out of the last twoweeks.
Monica Ramirez, a business administration freshman, said shewould not have been able to get to the polls without the freeshuttle service.
“It was a good idea,” said Ramirez, who switched herregistration from New Orleans to Baton Rouge when she got toLSU.
Project Geaux shifted its focus after the deadline for voterregistration to find ways to help students make the best-informeddecisions and to make sure newly-registered voters actually didvote, said Danielle Wheeler, a mass communication senior andproject volunteer.
“We wanted to make it as easy as possible for students tovote,” Wheeler said.
The organization started this summer as a collaborative effortamong several campus organizations and local civic groups toencourage young people to vote, Wheeler said.
The buses ran twice daily on Thursday and Friday of last weekand Monday and Tuesday of this week. Tuesday was the last day forabsentee voting.
Each bus had at least 10 students on it, said Jessica Stewart,the co-director of legislative affairs for Student Government and aProject Geaux volunteer.
Stewart said the University Office of Parking, Traffic andTransportation provided the buses.
Only those registered to vote in East Baton Rouge Parish couldtake advantage of the buses, which brought students downtown to theregistrar’s office.
“It’s helped a lot of people who don’t havecars and couldn’t get there,” said Mary Zura, anarchitecture freshman and Geaux Vote volunteer.
Zura, who is registered to vote in her home state of Michigan,said Project Geaux has made it much easier on students than theprocess she has to go through to vote.
“I know people who just turned 18 in college andcouldn’t register anywhere,” she said.
Chatta Frederic, a mass communication sophomore, said ProjectGeaux made it easier for students who had no idea where to startwith the voting process.
“A lot of people don’t know even know where to go toregister,” Frederic said. “They’ve put it righthere.”