The group For Florida’s Future has been busy this year at the University of South Florida. Over the past few months, they’ve worked tirelessly to ensure that students understand the importance of voting. They've gotten over 800 students registered to vote, and over 900 pledges to cast a vote.
And with the start of early voting this week, they are taking the next step, launching their “Shuttle Together, Stronger Together” program, which entails a shuttle that will give free rides to the nearest voting center. The program has launched on nine campuses across the state.
Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn was in attendance at the launch event on USF's Tampa campus to lend his support for the program.
He spoke about the importance of “not only getting people registered to vote, but more importantly getting people to turn out to vote, and all the registrations in the world don’t make a difference if folks aren’t motivated to go to the polls and cast that vote.”
Making sure that people go out and exercise their right to vote has always been an impediment in these elections, and now more than ever, groups like For Florida's Future see a growing disenchantment with elections as an impetus to inspire people to get involved.
Much of this lack of enthusiasm, especially for young people, is likely due to the sense to many that they're being left behind; saddled with debt and lacking the opportunities their parents' generation had.
And even though many Millennials view the system is rigged, activists hope they can make them see how important it is to get to the polls on Nov. 8.
This will be the first time that many students at USF will be voting, the all important Millennial group is finally getting a chance to affect their own future.
And in this race, at least, they are taking careful note of both major party presidential candidates, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.
Meghan Piotrowski, a first time voter attending USF, stressed the importance of looking up the facts behind the issues, "making sure that you don't just listen to your mom because she's Republican and tells how you to think."
This election cycle, many voters seem to be foregoing party loyalty altogether, instead examining each candidate outside of their respective parties.
For Florida's Future is a progressive group that is fighting to keep Trump out of the White House, though, they're not telling the students they're shuttling who to vote for.
The program will run on weekdays until November 5, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. The shuttle rides are free, but riders must pre-register, either at a station that For Florida’s Future will have around the Marshall Student Services building, or online. They also need to bring some kind of state-issued photo ID in order to vote. The shuttle will take them to the Temple Terrace library, one of more than a dozen early voting sites in Hillsborough County.
