Young Texans March for Voting Rights

While the nation's eyes may have been on Hawaii and Wisconsin on Tuesday, it was also the first day of early voting in Texas, and voting rights came to the fore in a rural county outside of Houston.

More than 1,000 mostly African-American students from Prairie View A&M, a historically black university, marched 7.3 miles to the nearest polling place, wearing shirts declaring "It is 2008. We will vote!" The students, joined by faculty and community members, were protesting the county's refusal to open an polling place on or near the campus, which they feel is part of pattern of the county impeding students' right to vote.

This year, Waller county officials announced they would have only one polling place open for early voting. Thanks to pressure from student organizations such as Black Youth Vote! Texas and other community groups, the Department of Justice stepped in to question the decision. The same day that the march was announced, Waller county officials agreed to open three others polling places, but they won't be open until later this week.

Waller County, where Prairie View is located, has a history of controversy over voting rights, particularly surrounding the university. In a mostly white, conservative county, Prairie View students represent a sizeable minority demographic. In 2004, students organized a similar march when many of them were declared ineligible to vote based on residency status. According to the Houston Chronicle, the county is still under investigation by the Texas Attorney General for the 2006 election, when black community leaders complained of faulty machines and inadequate staffing of polling places, and hundreds of students' names being missing from election rosters.

Tuesday's march was, according to those who went, a testament to the power of youth organizing and action. Andre Evans, president of the Prairie View Student Government Association, said it best: "It's time for students to be more proactive and aggressive in obtaining our rights...Our problem is that we have not had county leaders in office who care about the needs or concerns of students. We're going to vote on Tuesday, and in the future, we will vote to get some of those people out of office."

Comments (18)

1. a litle sweet victory...

   Posted by ibbleblibble at 02/21/2008 @ 11:38pm

2. Andre Evans, president of the Prairie View Student Government Association, said..."....we have not had county leaders in office who care about the needs or concerns of students. We're going to vote on Tuesday, and in the future, we will vote to get some of those people out of office."

   I've been to PV university a couple of times. The university's size, while not large by any means, overwhelms the nearby community....Sure, its students should be allowed to vote for state-wide or national contests, and at somewhere convenient to campus, but the town of Hempstead is like two traffic lights away, where students flock to for food and shopping anyway.

   The biggest issue for small communities hosting colleges, is that they simply can't let students vote on issues affecting local residents. Students are temporary residents and frankly, too age similar....can be bad news for local needs & concerns of actual permanent residents.

   Two sides to every issue!

   Posted by Happy at 02/22/2008 @ 12:03am

3. The biggest issue for small communities hosting colleges, is that they simply can't let students vote on issues affecting local residents. Students are temporary residents and frankly, too age similar....can be bad news for local needs & concerns of actual permanent residents.

   Posted by HAPPY 02/22/2008 @ 12:03am | ignore this person

   they simply can't let students vote on issues affecting local residents

   they simply can't let students vote on issues

   they simply can't let students vote

   can't let students vote

   Posted by Lillian at 02/22/2008 @ 12:09am

4. The transitory nature of students' presence is not a reasonable excuse for denying them their right to vote. If we restricted the right to vote in local elections based on duration of stay vast numbers of people would be completely disenfranchised. We live in a migratory society.

   Posted by jennf123 at 02/22/2008 @ 02:34am

5. Posted by HAPPY 02/22/2008 @ 12:03am

   Okay, HAPPY...then the college students shouldn't be effected by LOCAL LAWS either, should they?

   Posted by Mask at 02/22/2008 @ 08:47am

6. Okay, HAPPY...then the college students shouldn't be effected by LOCAL LAWS either, should they?

   Posted by MASK 02/22/2008 @ 08:47am

   That doesn't make any sense. If you travel out of country, you're subjected to THEIR laws, but have no say in their elections.

   Call me old school, but I prefer the landowner requirement myself.

   Posted by Sliver at 02/22/2008 @ 09:00am

7. Call me old school, but I prefer the landowner requirement myself.

   Posted by SLIVER 02/22/2008 @ 09:00am

   Then it would seem all the banks would own our votes. And for the rich people who own their own homes. In fact...some of them own 4 homes in different states...perhaps they should get four votes then?

   Posted by jro555 at 02/22/2008 @ 09:09am

8. In fact...some of them own 4 homes in different states...perhaps they should get four votes then?

   Posted by JRO555 02/22/2008 @ 09:09am

   Nope. Just where they claim "residency" by spending most of their time per year in that location. It works that way for tax purposes, it should work that way for voting purposes.

   Posted by Sliver at 02/22/2008 @ 09:13am

9. Posted by SLIVER 02/22/2008 @ 09:13am :: and...for people who have the banks holding their mortgage? For just out of school kids like me, living in an apartment?? we aren't land holders. the homeless- they don't have a right to vote? they still live here, on the streets. ((just being a devils advocate...I do understand where you are coming from))

   Posted by jro555 at 02/22/2008 @ 09:20am

10. Call me old school, but I prefer the landowner requirement myself.

    Posted by SLIVER 02/22/2008 @ 09:00am

    "old school" being....pre-1856?!?!!??!?

    Hmm...who ELSE couldn't vote before 1856...hmmmm?

    Posted by Mask at 02/22/2008 @ 09:25am

11. Call me old school, but I prefer the landowner requirement myself.

    Posted by SLIVER 02/22/2008 @ 09:00am

    what about renters?

    street people?

    Posted by frosty zoom at 02/22/2008 @ 09:27am

12. Posted by MEGACEPHALUS 02/22/2008 @ 09:56am

    I don't see how that could be legal. Nor should it.

    Posted by Sliver at 02/22/2008 @ 11:27am

13. I don't see how that could be legal. Nor should it.

    Posted by SLIVER 02/22/2008 @ 11:27am |

    So you don't think US citizens living abroad should be allowed to vote either?!?!?!?

    Posted by Mask at 02/22/2008 @ 11:49am

14. Posted by SLIVER 02/22/2008 @ 11:27am ::: ok I take it back, I don't really know where you're coming from.

    Posted by jro555 at 02/22/2008 @ 12:04pm

15. Students live at their campus for, at minimum, nine months a year for four years. Many students stay on or near campuses for the summer to work or take additional classes. It seems to make more sense to let them vote in the elections of their campus town than to require them to vote absentee in precincts where they live for less than one quarter of the year. Voting in local elections could encourage students to be more involved in the local community and would give representation to a demographic that, while individually transient, is as a group a permanent and important part of the local community and economy, and should be represented. It's unfair for a college town to let students keep the local economy afloat and then deny them representation on issues that affect them.

    Posted by clay.collier at 02/22/2008 @ 3:09pm

16. It's unfair for a college town to let students keep the local economy afloat and then deny them representation on issues that affect them.

    Posted by CLAY.COLLIER 02/22/2008 @ 3:09pm

    What about issues that DON'T affect them but the townspeople? Say the college students decide to cut back local taxes since they have no use for the town's library since they've got one on campus? Cut back on police since they have campus security? Elect Green Party students to sit on City Council and repeats this every election? You're out of your mind and have no concept of small towns hosting 18 to 25 yrs old! Literally, letting the patients run the hospital and screw the bills!

    Posted by Happy at 02/22/2008 @ 5:40pm

17. I actually live in a college town--in fact, have lived in two. Lawrence, KS and Gainesville, FL. First of all, Happy, any one can get a library card at a public university. All you have to do is go in and get one. Second, think of the stagnant backwater your town would be without all the money and culture brought in by that university and the students that pay their own (or their parents) hard earned money to go there. It would render Lawrence the equivalent of Olathe and Gainesville the equivalent of Ocala. The vast majority of cities in this country are not college towns and you are more than welcome to move to one. As to Silver's stunningly enlightened comment arguing for a restriction of voting rights to land owners, US census data shows that over all fewer than 70% of Americans own their own homes; whereas when we look specifically at hispanic and black homeownership the number dips below 50% , as it also does for people under the age of 35. By the way, Silver, since you're so old school, if a husband's name is on the lease should the law of coverture apply?

    Posted by jennf123 at 02/22/2008 @ 9:21pm

18. Posted by JENNF123 02/22/2008 @ 9:21pm

    If I'm not mistaken, Lawrence is where the Kansas Jayhawks roosts and Gainsville is where most of my high school friends went to college. Both are cities any college graduate would, or should, have heard of. Both Universities are big...I know UFlorida is huge and I seriously doubt KU is small.

    Now, have you ever heard of Hempstead, TX before my post? Do you know that PV University ain't much bigger than a large suburban high school?

    Hempstead surely benefits from PV's financial spendings but it is first and foremost, a satellite city on the remote edge of Houston and is part of an agriculture-heavy county. Also, PVU is predominantly black and its students don't have the family dollars that UF students have......most probably have no idea where the World's Biggest Cocktail Party takes place each fall!

    Posted by Happy at 02/22/2008 @ 10:30pm