NEW ORLEANS, La., – About 20 students from public and private high schools in New Orleans are hosting a “Biking to the Polls” event on Friday, October 16th at 5:00pm. Part of the group's initiative is to mobilize their peers to vote. The event will kick off at 5:00pm at Landry-Walker High School where event partner Bike Easy will lead the group in an organized bike ride to the Algiers Courthouse for early voting.

 

As part of Project Vote & Live, a special program launched by the Alliance for Diversity & Excellence last July, the participating young people developed a nonpartisan voter awareness campaign with a mission to ensure that every New Orleanian who is eligible to vote is registered, especially youth between the ages of 18-25 years old. They also aim to ensure registered voters understand the importance of voting in every election. 

 

Since July, the students have mobilized and developed a campaign that included voter registration drives, providing voting awareness through social media and organizing transportation to polling locations, and other community events. The group will also host three student-moderated virtual forums for candidates in the District Attorney and Orleans Parish School Board races. The scheduled forums will be streamed live on the Facebook and Instagram Pages of YEAV, InspireNOLA, ADE, and the respective school sites. The virtual forum schedule is as follows:

In addition, YEAV is participating in Black Youth Vote Collegiate & Community Challenge through the Louisiana Unity Coalition, an affiliate of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation. In such, YEAV has joined other campus or community-based organization in a competition to sign up the most students and young adults (18 – 35) to pledging to vote and/or signs up the most volunteers to be poll monitors on their campus or in the broader community. The winner will receive a $1500 stipend for their organization.

***Media is invited to attend the student-moderated forums in person at the locations listed above. Students and organizers will be available for interviews. ***

The early voting period in Louisiana for the November election is from October 16-27 (excluding Sundays, Oct. 18 and 25) from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m.

When you go to cast your vote early, you will be asked to identify yourself with either a photo ID or signature on a voter affidavit.

Here's what you can use for that:

Early Voting Locations for Orleans Parish

*Voter Machine Warehouse accommodates Seniors and the disabled by allowing them to enter into the warehouse directly through a door to the left of the entrance.

Never wear any campaign shirt, hat, and button or pin when voting. All polling places have a 600 foot campaign free zone.

The National Coalition on Black Civic Participation’s (NCBCP) Black Youth Vote! Get Out To Vote (GOTV); Black Collegiate and Community Challenge goals are to:

The BYV! GOTV: Black Collegiate and Community Challenge partners include: NCBCP, NBCAHF, SEIU and HBCU Green Fund.

The BYV! GOTV: Black Collegiate and Community Challenge is strictly non-partisan and cannot support a particular candidate, party, or partisan affiliation.

To participate , please register your campus or community-based organization by September 30, 2020 by visiting http://unitycampaign.org/voteforjustice. If you need assistance, you can contact Darrell Coles, BYV Program Coordinator, NCBCP, or Acacia Newsome, BYV/BWR Program Assistant, NCBCP, at [email protected] or (202) 659-4929 (office).

The campus or community-based organization that signs up the most students and young adults (18 – 35) to pledge to vote (using the official Black Youth Vote #Vote4Justice Pledge Cards provided by NCBCP) and/or signs up the most volunteers to be poll monitors on your campus or in the broader community is eligible to win the Black Collegiate and Community Challenge.

The winner will receive the 2020 Black Youth Vote! Campus or Community-Based Organization of the Year Award. There will be ten (3) national winners of

the BYV! Black Collegiate and Community Challenge.

The National Coalition will announce the winners during the Unity 2020 Campaign Post- Election Press Briefing in November 2020. There will be three cash prizes available.

Black Youth Vote! (BYV) is the youth-led civic engagement arm of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation. Black Youth Vote’s mission is to train, invest and provide Black youth and young adults with civic engagement, organizing and civic leadership opportunities------focused on Millennials, Generation Z and Returning Citizens (18 – 35 yrs. old). Black Youth Vote! is focused on leveraging the power of the black

youth electorate to make positive social change and win on the issues they care about in their communities, including: racial & economic justice, college affordability, criminal justice/policing reform, affordable health care, workers’ rights, voting rights, human rights and more! For more information visit:

www.unitycampaign.org.

Participation in our #RuVoteREADY Public Awareness is easy; simply agree to share our public information campaign materials (social media, direct mail, digital ADS, PSAs, National Voter Registration Day event) with your social media friends online and via text messaging. 

The Louisiana Unity Coalition is an affiliate of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation (NCBCP), is a 501©3, non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to increasing civic engagement and voter participation in Black and underserved communities. The National Coalition has a national membership of organizations representing a diverse constituency base including civil rights, labor, and business organizations; fraternities and sororities; women, youth, educators, faith leaders, public policy makers, researchers, and others.

The National Coalition was founded on May 6, 1976. For nearly 40 years, The National Coalition has served as an effective convener and facilitator at the local, state, and national levels of efforts to address the disenfranchisement of underserved and other marginalized communities through civic engagement including: ​

As an affiliate, we serve as the lead entity for its Unity '2020 Black Voting & Power Building National Campaign initiative which engages state-based organizations to lead, organize and implement non-partisan efforts centered around the November 3rd Elections in Louisiana. These activities include Voter Registration, Voter Assistance & Voter Protection Field & Online Outreach; Poll Monitor Recruitment Drive; Get Out the Vote (GOTV) Campaign; Presidential Debate Watch Parties, Spill the Tea & Field Outreach events among other activities.

The National Coalition strives to create an enlightened community by engaging people in all aspects of public life through service/volunteerism, advocacy, leadership development, and voting.