Students at UCF

Ballots will be available on campus starting in October

will have an early voting site on campus before the general election, according to the Orange County Supervisor of Elections.

Students at the University of Central Florida will have an early voting site on campus in the days before the Nov. 6 general election, the Orange County Supervisor of Elections said Thursday.

Bill Cowles said his office worked with UCF President Dale Whittaker to set up the on-campus early voting site, only the second ever at the largest university in the state.

“Our student leadership strongly supported UCF’s early voting site,” Whittaker said in a statement. “An oncampus location will give our students, faculty and staff early access to exercise their right to vote.”

The decision comes after a judge ruled last month that a state-imposed ban on oncampus early voting sites in place since 2014 was unconstitutional. In a scathing decision, U.S. District Judge Mark Walker said it appeared to be done to stop younger voters from casting ballots.

UCF had an early voting site on campus before the general election that year.

Statewide, nearly 830,000 students are enrolled in public universities and colleges, according to court documents. About 43 percent of college students cast early voting ballots in 2016.

Early voting will be from Monday, Oct. 22 to Sunday, Nov. 4. The exact site of the early voting location at UCF is yet to be determined, Cowles said.

State Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith, D-Orlando, who sent a letter to Cowles’ office requesting an early voting site, said whatever location is chosen should be in a place with heavy student foot traffic.

Earlier this week, an early voting location also was designated for the University of Florida, the Alligator reported. The decision at UCF is counter to the situation at Florida State University, where the Leon County Supervisor of Elections said he blamed “logistics involving securing facilities, the availability of equipment and time needed for training” in his decision not to have an early voting site on campus there, according to the Tallahassee Democrat.

One person strongly supporting having early voting at college campuses was the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who was in Central Florida on Monday to push for voting rights.

“The right to vote implies a right to easy access to vote for ... groups of people in neighborhoods, and a university is a neighborhood,” he said.