NATCHEZ &8212; For some New Orleans voters now living in the Miss-Lou absentee ballots for Saturday&8217;s mayoral election weren&8217;t good enough.

&8220;I don&8217;t trust mailing my ballot in because of the problems they&8217;ve had,&8221; Willye Turner said.

Anyone who&8217;s received a Christmas card &8212; postmarked Dec. 2 &8212; in the last week will understand her concerns.

Twenty-two candidates are listed on today&8217;s ballot for mayor of New Orleans. Evacuated residents have been casting absentee votes for months.

Turner and a group of like-minded residents approached New Hope Missionary Baptist Church last week to ask about borrowing one of the church&8217;s two buses to make the day trip today.

New Hope, after doing so much for so many in the time since Hurricane Katrina changed everyone&8217;s definition of Samaritan, agreed.

&8220;We didn&8217;t intend to play a part in this election,&8221; Pauline Rogers, New Hope&8217;s program director, said. &8220;(But) they approached us Friday so we&8217;re on standby.&8221;

Standby will turn to green light when Turner&8217;s group gets up into the 30s, something she said she was working Friday night on doing.

Because, even though New Hope is getting the fuel donated, sending less than a pretty full bus would be wasteful.

Bus or no bus, Turner said she would be in New Orleans today to pull the lever in this most important election.

&8220;If we don&8217;t get the bus, we&8217;ll try to find other means,&8221; she said. &8220;We&8217;ll probably end up taking cars.&8221;

And while her asthma won&8217;t allow her to spend an extended period of time in the city, she said the election was too important to miss.

&8220;With 22 candidates, you know some of them don&8217;t have the best interests of the city and the citizens in mind,&8221; she said. &8220;If I want my vote to count, I thought I needed to go myself and vote.&8221;