Unless it’s planted right next to a confederate flag, I love seeing the “Vote Against Prop 3” signs on people’s front lawns (they’re right, seriously, vote against Proposition Three). These signs are one of my favorite reminders that there’s an election coming up. Nov. 7 is election day, and we’re off to the polls to decide on 14 amendments to the Texas Constitution. And by “we,” I mean you. I’m not going, I’m pretty busy.
Election day is a Tuesday, it’s the middle of the week, and … I’m sure I have something due, and I bet it’s important. I think I might have a test that day. I don’t think I can vote at all, now that I think about it. Early voting started Oct. 23 and it runs until Nov. 3, but the nearest early voting poll booth is a 20-minute walk — that’s 40 minutes there and back.
Since I’d rather not do that, it would be awfully convenient if Trinity had an on-campus voting booth, at least for early voting. College students are busy and stressed, and we barely have enough time to pass our classes, let alone try to find a way to get to the polls and research who we want to vote for. In those very rare moments of peace between assignments, I know I don’t want to be trekking to the nearest polling booth.
Across the country, on-campus voting is commonplace, but — surprise, surprise — Texas is an exception. This state has made it more difficult for students to vote by excluding college IDs as a form of voter identification. Voting in Texas is something of a tall order, especially because we don’t get the luxury of same-day, online and automatic voter registration processes.
What’s worse is that Texas lawmakers have been trying to ban on-campus voting since 2019, when election laws changed to mandate that polling places remain open for all 12 days of early voting — something that’s not feasible for most universities. Texas A&M University-Commerce, for example, used to have a temporary on-campus voting site, but because of the law, their nearest polling location is now 13 miles away.
Screaming about voter suppression is starting to make my throat hurt. Greg Abbott can hide behind the guise of protecting election integrity all he wants, but it’s clear as day what his true motivation is. He’s terrified that if students have the right to vote, he won’t get reelected. Texas is one of the hardest states to vote in, and that works perfectly to Abbott’s advantage.
He and other tyrannical Texas lawmakers are shaking in their boots at the possibility of Texas turning blue and voting him out. I know that the day Texas turns blue is the same day that pigs fly and all that, but as college students are becoming more liberal and officeholders are getting more scared, I’m starting to think it’s more of a possibility than we think it is.
Besides making it so much easier for college students to vote, on-campus polling locations also provide incentives for students to make more well-informed decisions. Especially at a school like Trinity, where a walk across upper campus can mean getting approached by both the progressive and conservative groups within five minutes, a lively discussion regarding ballot measures and politics is definitely to be expected. I know something as visible as on-campus polling locations would want to make even my most apolitical friends do a little research.
Another rationale behind not allowing on-campus voting is that some lawmakers genuinely believe that polling sites invite “nefarious actors” to lurk between voting machines, ready to do their sneaky magic and change a vote the second it’s cast. They worry about safety on college campuses, a laudable and honorable concern for lawmakers who are also strangely not petitioning to change Texas’ status as one of the 11 states in the U.S. that have legalized concealed-campus carry for public universities.
Texas lawmakers should seriously do us all a favor and cut the dramatics. I mean, I guess if elected officials are afraid of educated voters, making it difficult for them to vote is a pretty savvy step in making sure they keep their seats.
Until Trinity realizes that as a private (and well-funded) university, we definitely can maintain these polling sites, I guess we’re stuck making the trek. Organizations on campus like TU Progressives, the Voter Engagement Task Force and MOVE Texas are helping us get to and from the polls. On election day, the Alamo Convocation Center down the road from Alamo Stadium will have a polling booth from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., and that one is literally two minutes from the library by foot, so unless your dorm is on fire you’re going to go vote.
As students in this very near-apocalyptic state, it’s our responsibility to do whatever we can to try and make the best of a bad situation. If we keep fighting to end voter suppression, lawmakers will stop treating us like seven-year-olds and actually do the jobs they were hired to do.
