Make voting easy for Florida college students
The excuses are many: There’s not enough time, not enough parking, logistical problems, and the age-old argument that young people don’t vote.
When U.S. District Judge Mark Walker struck down Florida’s prohibition on early voting on public college and university campuses, he didn’t mince words. The state opinion, he wrote, “reveals a stark pattern of discrimination.”
Just what do these excuses by a number of elections supervisors reveal?
We’re hearing that there is not enough time to provide earlyvoting sites on campuses. Elections supervisors have until Oct. 7 to designate early-voting sites for the general election. Walker issued his ruling on July 24 — nearly a month ago. Not enough time? Who are they kidding?
The argument about a lack of parking is particularly rich. It’s no secret that it is often hard to find a parking place on some of the state’s largest university campuses. However, many students live on campus and do not have cars. The early-voting campus sites are intended for them. If members of the public want to drive to a campus to vote, that’s their right. However, if they can’t find a parking place, it’s easy for them to drive to an early-voting site off campus.
Finding the right early-voting spot on campus is a challenge. But Florida State University President John Thrasher tried to work with Leon County Elections Supervisor Mark Earley to find a location. The university offered the Tucker Center, an ample space that not only FSU students could walk to, but also students at nearby Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University. However, Earley said there wasn’t enough time to make it work. Not enough staffing. Not enough money. His people are working day and night.
Well, sure. It’s a big election year. You would think that the supervisor of elections in the county that seats not only our state capital but one of Florida’s oldest and largest universities, would make early voting on campus a priority. Students make up a hefty percentage of Leon County, after all. But no. For 2018, early voting on the FSU campus is a no-go.
Finally, there’s that oft-repeated refrain that “young people don’t vote.” In his court opinion, Walker noted that more than a fourth of the people who voted in 2016 were under age 30. Young people have been registering to vote in large numbers since the shooting at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland. From our observations, these young people are determined to vote this election season. Our supervisors of elections and university administrators should be doing everything they can to help them.
The League of Women Voters of Florida reached out to a number of university presidents, asking them to work with their elections supervisors to provide early voting for students. The silence, for the most part, has been deafening.
On Thursday, however, Orange County Elections Supervisor Bill Cowles related that the University of Central Florida will have an early-voting site for the general election. This is great news for the students of the largest university in Florida.
Also, applause goes to the University of Florida, as the Alachua County elections supervisor has announced that early voting will be held on the UF campus. Hats off to the brave students at UF, along with an FSU student, who joined us — the League of Women Voters of Florida — and the Andrew Goodman Foundation, as co-plaintiffs on the lawsuit we filed to allow early voting on campus.
What are we teaching our young people when we have to sue to get voting equity? If there is any institution uniquely qualified to set an example of what good citizenship is, it is a college or a university. Providing early voting on campus would not only encourage better student participation in the civic process, but would likely ensure that our students become lifelong voters.
Or would it just be too hard to give up the tired refrain that “young people don’t vote”?