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Campus needs an early-voting site

Posted on August 2, 2007 by Staff

Eve Carson and Mike Tarrant 

The Orange County Board of Elections may present UNC students with two alternatives for early voting in this fall’s municipal elections: Hitch a ride to the closest poll, or simply don’t vote.

In an email last Monday, Orange County elections director Barry Garner informed UNC-Chapel Hill administrators that he had decided to recommend that the board move the location of their early-voting polling site from the traditional on-campus site to the Seymour Senior Center off Homestead Road.

In past years, the on-campus polling site has been located at Morehead Planetarium, which will not be available this year due to the showing of a special exhibit.

The UNC voting location has been Orange County’s most popular early-voting site for UNC faculty and staff as well as local community members who live and work nearby. According to the News & Observer, nearly 2,800 people voted early for municipal elections at the planetarium last year. They represented more than 40 percent of the early ballots cast and 8 percent of the total ballots cast in the 2006 general election.

The Senior Center is located four miles away from the UNC campus — outside of walking distance for the thousands of students, faculty, staff and Chapel Hill residents who live and work in and around downtown Chapel Hill.

Having an early-voting site on campus is both symbolically and politically meaningful.

Through our positions in student government, we represent almost 28,000 undergraduate and graduate students and potentially eligible voters. Some students cast their very first votes in Chapel Hill. Other students vote for the third, fifth or fifteenth times in Chapel Hill. With students split between six different precincts on election day, the easiest way for students to be able to vote is to have a close, convenient early-voting site.

But this early-voting site is not just important for students. The university is also the county’s largest employer and represents thousands of long-terms residents of the town of Chapel Hill.

The idea of not having an on-campus voting site is particularly disappointing in light of the recent passage of a same-day voter registration bill. This legislation was created to facilitate increased voter turnout, but continuing an on-campus precinct is vital for the goals of this legislation to be reached.

A polling site at the UNC Student Union was explored but rejected due to concerns about potential problems with parking. As Orange County Commissioner Mike Nelson points out, an early-voting site at the UNC Student Union makes more sense geographically for a large number of Chapel Hill voters than the Senior Center. And in order to address parking concerns, Carrboro Mayor Mark Chilton has graciously asked the board to direct voters with automobile/parking needs to the Carrboro Town Hall early-voting site, and the Student Union is situated next to the most heavily used bus stop on campus. Furthermore, while the site is fully accessible for persons with disabilities, UNC has offered to provide curbside voting for those who would be unable to leave their vehicles.

Over the past week or so, some people have told us that “students do not vote no matter how easy we make it.” Putting up additional impediments, however, is not the solution to the problem. Our classmates, teachers, service workers and neighbors represent the full spectrum of political and ideological beliefs, and their vote is valuable and meaningful to local city and county affairs. It is absolutely critical for the future well being of Chapel Hill, Orange County and the university that we work to foster a sense of ownership and responsibility for this town within our student community.

In an era where voter apathy sometimes seems more the norm than an unfortunate consequence, we celebrate both the university’s and the town’s tradition of community engagement. And as we strive to keep fostering these opportunities for civic involvement, it seems not only fitting but necessary to keep an on-campus polling site to serve the citizens and voters from and around the University of North Carolina.
We ask the board to work with us to explore other locations that would be reasonable for both students and residents, even if it is not on campus (such as locations in the downtown Franklin Street area). And we ask for your help too. Please join us in encouraging our young people to get more engaged with town affairs. You can start today by contacting the Orange County Board of Elections and asking them to find a location for one-stop early voting that is accessible to and convenient for both students and the broader community.

You may email the chair of the board, Billie Cox, bcox@ridetta.org, or call the Board of Elections office at 245-2350.

The board will be meeting on Tuesday, August 7th, at 4 p.m. at the Board of Elections office, 110 E. King Street in Hillsborough. Please come to this meeting and voice your support for an on-campus early-voting site. For more information regarding this issue, please visit www.unc.edu/studgov.

Eve Carson is student body president at UNC-Chapel Hill. Mike Tarrant is student body vice-president.

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