The 2018 midterm elections reinvigorated Texas like no other election has ever done. With record breaking voter engagement and turnout for the state, it was not long after that voter suppression reared its ugly head.
“We only had SEVEN voting machines for a campus population of 39,000 students.”
Texas State University in San Marcos was one of the many college campuses that was hit with problems for those trying to vote. Restricted hours, limited voting machines, and a campus population nowhere near being accommodated to its numbers was stripped of any chance of a proper voting experience.
Alexa Browning, Director of Government Affairs for Texas State Student Government witnessed the constant problems students and residents ran into first-hand at the campus’ only on-site polling location.
“During the 2018 election, the voter turnout at TXST was unprecedented. We had students waiting in line for hours because we only had about seven voting machines for a campus population of 39,000 students,” Browning says. “We also only had those seven machines available to us for a couple days of early voting instead of having them available for the entirety of early voting.”
The location in 2018 at Texas State grounds was located on campus at the LBJ Student Center, the only polling place on campus. This location was essential to students and residents living near or on campus that are less likely to have reliable transportation in order to vote off campus.
Throughout early voting, there were numerous reports of students leaving the line to go to their scheduled classes because of extreme wait times. Only after complaints of voter suppression and the threat of a lawsuit by Texas Civil Rights Project on behalf of two Texas State university students, the League of Women Voters and MOVE Texas to Hays County demanding that they reopen the polling places, did the county allow for additional days to be added for early voting to the on-campus location.
In August 2019, the Hays County Elections Office began discussing removing the only polling location from campus, citing “parking concerns.” Many students and Hays county residents worry about the difficulty and the lack of accessibility to voting. The real step that should be taken is making the on-campus polling site permanent.
Having fought hard to keep the Texas State on-site polling location open to serve its nearly 40,000 students, leaders in the community and the students themselves are now continuing the fight to ensure their right to vote. Voter turnout is again expected to break records in 2020. This only reaffirms that these on-campus locations must be kept open and expanded.
“College kids WANT TO VOTE.”
Browning has expressed her concerns repeatedly as a strong advocate for guaranteed polling locations on campuses across Texas. Many bills filed in 2019, such as HB375 by Representative Hinojosa, were designed to help more eligible young Texans vote but were cast aside by other legislators as not a priority.
“College kids want to vote, but we can’t miss tests and presentations in order to do so.” Browning says, “Voting off campus is especially hard for students that go to schools in more rural areas because there is not guaranteed access to public transportation.”
