Campus voting site is denied

[Judi Lynn]

Sept. 3, 2004, 12:13AM

Campus voting site is denied
County's vote rekindles dispute at Prairie View A&M University
By TERRY KLIEWER
Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle

HEMPSTEAD - The Prairie View A&M University student-voting controversy, believed resolved when the Waller County district attorney said he would resign later this month, is apparently far from settled. Waller County commissioners decided Thursday to deny designating a central campus voting site.

The 3-to-2 vote surprised minority leaders who thought county Judge Owen Ralston, a white Republican, would be willing to join with the court's two Democrats, both black, to approve the voting location on the mostly minority campus.

The Commissioners Court recently approved the use of the county's community center at the south edge of the campus to serve as the lone polling place for both the university and the small, mostly black town that adjoins it. Proponents of the central campus site said the community building, five minutes by foot from the center of campus, is inconvenient and intimidating to student voters.

However, Ralston countered that the Memorial Student Center, proposed by minority and student leaders for the second voting site, is too noisy and crowded to meet legal security requirements for voting. "There's not a place in that building that meets the election code," he said. "We need to find a better place if there's to be voting on the campus."
(snip/...)

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/2775743
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[Gman]

1. Just keeping the Black man down

[mbperrin]

2. Hmmm...guess we'll have to quit using the public schools

as voting sites here in West Texas if noisy and crowded is a problem.

We want a nice quiet orderly democracy children, so STFU and get in a straight line and do as you're told! (And no, you cannot go to the restroom, dammit!)

[histohoney]

7. Hi

West Texas, West Texas here too, Midland. I vote at MCC.

[wildeyed]

3. They should be ashamed, this is so blatant.

"We need to find a better place if there's to be voting on the campus." -Judge Owen Ralston

So these students can't vote b/c they can't find a good enough place to do it? BULLSHIT! :grr:

Here is contact info for the county officials who think black people shouldn't be allowed to vote b/c there is no place good enough for them to do it:

County Judge
Owen Ralston, 836 Austin St., Room 203
Hempstead Tx 77445
Phone Number: 979-826-7700 Fax: [phone]

Frank Pokluda, 29503 FM 1488 Waller, Tx 77484
Phone Number: 936-372-3491 Fax: [phone]

Louis Canales, P.O.Box 505 Pattison, Tx 77466
Phone Number: 281-375-5231 Fax: [phone]

http://www.co.waller.tx.us/government.htm

Send them a fax, give them a call. I'm sure they will be pleased to hear from you.

[leftchick]

4. the repukes are trying to thwart the college vote nationwide!

I read a very disturbing article about this in rollingstone magazine last month. It is not just minority campuses where this is happening. It is everywhere! They are ruthless and will stop at nothing to re-install the idiot*.

[wildeyed]

5. The political establishment in college towns don't like it

when the students get organized to vote. But it is illegal for them to stop it.

Have you read about Jason West, the Green Party mayor of New Paltz, NY. There was a split in the local political establishment and West snuck in with the student support. The town fathers had a freakin' aneurysm when he won. It was great!

[histohoney]

6. OH Please

I vote in the Commons of a local college. It's a little noise but please, I can still think and vote.