Early-Voting Booths to be absent from Campus in upcoming Election
The Student Life section of Utah State Today highlights work written by the talented student journalists at Utah State University. Each week, the editor selects a story that has been published in The Utah Statesman or the Hard News Café, or both, for inclusion in Utah State Today.
Early-Voting Booths to be absent from Campus in upcoming Election
by Benjamin Wood in The Utah Statesman
Steve Stokes, a candidate in this year’s Logan City Council race, is somewhat disappointed with the county’s decision to remove early voting from campus and said the nature of this year’s election presents a bigger draw for students. Recent legislation regarding parking around Logan, renters and budgetary concerns, Stokes said, involves university faculty and students who could potentially be deterred from casting their vote for not knowing where to go.
“A lot fewer people will go down and vote,” Stokes said.
City Recorder Teresa Harris said the matter simply comes down to cost. Each voting location requires paid judges and Harris said the historically low turnout of student voters doesn’t justify the spending for an on-campus site.
Associated Students of Utah State University Executive Vice President Spencer Lee said one factor that contributed to early voting on campus for last year’s general election was a nationwide push to increase the turnout of young voters. Federal and state money was given to the county, Lee said, specifically with the intent to promote voting among university students. Registration and early voting was available on campus, allowing students to vote in the TSC regardless of precinct. But this year it will not be available.
“Right now a student has to be aware of where they can vote,” Lee said.
Lee said students who frequently change residence often have trouble locating their designated precinct.
“They don’t remember where they lived last year. They could drive there, but they don’t know the address,” Lee said.
Lee said for those students who are unaware of their precinct, early voting can be done by anyone registered in Logan at the courthouse on Main Street. Early voting is available Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m.-6 p.m. and runs until Oct. 30.
Students who live on campus are part of the precinct served by the Lundstrom Center and anyone previously registered can cast a provisional ballot there. Zollinger said to cast a provisional ballot, voters need proper identification and proof of residency. Provisional votes generate more paperwork and labor for the city and slow down the counting but nonetheless offer students who are unsure of where to vote a chance to participate.
“There is a process. They would still be able to vote,” Zollinger said.
Stokes said with the right coordination, the county likely could have found “politically savvy” students to volunteer their time to man booths on campus. A great opportunity, Stokes said, would have been to have early voting available following next week’s council and mayoral debates, to be held Wednesday and Friday, respectively, at 12:30 p.m. in the TSC West Ballroom.
“Even if it was just one day of early voting, I think it would be fantastic,” Stokes said.
Harris said such coordination would need to have been done well before the election. The city council and county would have to add or define the precincts to include voting in the TSC and would have to approve the lists of poll workers.
“I can’t just randomly have someone be a judge,” Harris said.
In the future, however, Harris said having student volunteers could be a possibility as long as such preparations are made in advance.
Lee said he would like to see that happen next year, and if he had been aware of the circumstances during his transitional stage of taking office, he would have tried to organize on-campus voting for this coming election. When this year ends, Lee said he would like to do his part to make sure the next executive vice president is aware of the necessary preparations and may even “get the ball rolling” before leaving office.
“Last year we had a lot of students vote (on campus). I was one of them down in the Juniper Lounge,” Lee said.
Information regarding Logan elections, including candidate platforms, can be found at www.loganutah.org and precinct maps are available on Cache County’s Web site.
– b.c.wood@aggiemail.usu.edu
