University voting advocates on Tuesday took to the Travis County Commissioners Court to advocate for equitable voting access on college campuses on and before election day, specifically at St. Edward’s University and Huston-Tillotson University.
Advocates – mostly from voting rights group Texas Rising – included students from the University of Texas and Huston-Tillotson. They urged commissioners to establish early polling locations and election day voting locations at Huston-Tillotson and St. Edward’s campuses.
“It’s the responsibility of our elected officials to ensure greater access to the voting booth,” said Maggie DiSanza, a community organizer with Texas Rising and UT student. “So the court really has an unprecedented opportunity to lead Texas in creating a more equitable voting process and ensuring that all students, faculty, staff and community members in Travis County can easily vote.”
Advocates also mentioned they have registered hundreds of students in the last week and thousands during the school year.
“We’re registering hundreds of students every week,” said Brian Peña, the president of UT’s University Democrats. “They’re excited. They want to vote, and we are giving them the resources to educate them on everything that’s happening. But we really do need your cooperation when it comes to these other universities, to really get them to the ballot box.”
Peña added that he was appreciative of commissioners’ past efforts to expand voting at UT, but that the other universities were lacking in adequate voting access.
“As a UT-Austin student, I appreciate the (voting) accessibility,” said Nicholas Basha, a member of Texas Rising. “I always find it really easy to vote at UT between classes when I’m on campus. I’ll go and vote within 10 to 15 minutes. It’s a very seamless process. And I’m asking that students at St. Edward’s and Huston-Tillotson are able to have that same experience.”
“I’m also here in favor of efforts to establish polling locations at local universities here in the city,” said Tamaria Howard, a student at Huston-Tillotson. “We would benefit from an on-campus early voting location, so we don’t have to walk blocks to the library each election cycle. I can also attest that early voting locations will give students more access to vote.”
Commissioner Brigid Shea said that Huston-Tillotson has been an early voting location in the past and that she would advocate for the clerk to make it one this year.
“I would say what you’re doing today is one of the most important things you can do as a citizen: to go down to (your) elected leaders and tell us what you want,” said Commissioner Jeff Travillion. “I would encourage you to continue that process by identifying locations on-site that could be used.”
Travillion added that commissioners had looked into adding sites on UT’s campus but that they were deemed not ADA-compliant.
Photo by 2C2K Photography, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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Travis County Commissioners Court: The legislative body for Travis County. It includes representatives from the four Travis County Precincts, as well as the County Judge. The County Judge serves as the chair of the Court.
University of Texas: The preeminent state university whose flagship is located in Austin.
