‘Freedom is at Stake Get Out the Vote’ Bus Tour stops at FVSU

The tour is traveling to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) across the country to engage young voters and give them rides to the polls.

FORT VALLEY, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – The Freedom is at Stake GOTV Bus Tour is traveling to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) across the country to engage young voters.

On Thursday, the bus stopped at Fort Valley State University to give students rides to the polls in order to cast a ballot.

Tour leaders say they’re working to ensure transportation is not an obstacle during the 2024 election season.

Andrea Pringle is the Executive Director and Founder of Registration Nation, an organization dedicated to registering new voters and building civic dialog among young people and people of color.

“We have a bunch of first-time voters we’re taking, first time voters that actually vote,” Pringle said. “A lot of times we register people and then don’t go back to them, but we’re coming back to these young people and getting them to the polls. 

Pringle says it only takes once for young voters to participate in the democratic process to see its importance and feel that their impact has been made.

“Once they do it, they become lifetime participants in their civic responsibility and being heard,” Pringle said. “They do understand that their vote is their voice and their voice is critical.”

Members of student organizations at Fort Valley State University say they’ve been not only working to get more of their peers registered to vote, but also to change their registration addresses as well. They say this will make the voting process much more convenient.

“We’ve been encouraging them to change their voting location to Fort Valley because where they live they should vote,” said Gordon Smith, the Public Relations Officer of Fort Valley State’s Political Science Student Association (PSSA). “When we’re here on campus, we impact not just the campus but the Fort Valley community. We call ourselves a “communiversity.””

Smith says students changing their registration addresses to their campus residencies eliminates the logistical roadblocks first year students in particular often face.

Long before the bus stopped by to help students to the polls, Smith and other members of PSSA were hard at work registering as many first-time voters on campus as they could.

“On campus, we opted in and had over 700 students register to vote,” Smith said. 

Smith says it can be challenging to convince other young people that their vote matters. He’s confident though. The Registration Foundation working alongside student groups like PSSA has already made a huge difference in this election cycle.

‘We’re seeing the increase,” Smith said. “And seeing the students, I don’t even want to call them students because they’re citizens now, they’re seeing the importance of voting and making their voice heard and impact felt.”