Students took advantage of early voting by catching a ride to the polls outside the Student Union offered by different student organizations.
On Thursday, from 10 am to 3 pm, Dream Defenders and SLAP helped provide transportation for students to get out and vote early at the Alafaya Branch Library off of Highway 50.
“I’ve got an hour and 45 minutes in between classes, so it’s easier to do now,” said Laura Chilcutt, immigration lawyer and non-degree seeking graduate student.
Transportation was provided with the help of Service Employees International Union, a collaboration of Florida New Majority.
“We’re doing this because democracy is important to us and being able to provide rides to students and others from the community is part of our role as a union to give back to the community,” said Monica Russo, Florida Region Executive Vice President for Service Employees International Union.
Another organization spotted outside the Student Union offering transportation was the College Democrats at UCF. The organization has been providing students with transportation since the start of early voting on October 27, on the hour, every hour.
Their program “Yes We Van” started in 2008.
“Elections are won and loss by voter turn out, because Rick Scott and John McCain actually got the same amount of votes, the difference is, more people turned out for Rick Scott,” said Jordan Allen, director of political affairs for College Democrats of UCF.
Joe Sanders, democrat candidate, running for Florida House District 49 was outside the polling location talking to voters. He is a UCF political science graduate, who wants to take his days of on campus activism statewide.
“I really want to work on education issues, the Republican legislature cut 56 million this last year from UCF, which means that student’s tuition rates went up, bright futures scholarship has gotten harder to get, so we have to make sure everyone who works hard in this state gets a chance at their future, and that means education, so I want to work on that,” Sanders said. He continues, “I think at the end of the day we just have to prioritize college, and at that same level we have to give colleges like UCF the resources we need to keep tuition low”.
First time voter, Fadrian Gilbert, a bio medical student, took advantage of early voting and the ride to the polls, and said education was on of her main concerns.
“I need my pell grants to pay for school, I’m a struggling college student like everybody else, Romney is trying to take that away,” Gilbert said.
