State Rep. Carrie Isaac, a Hays County Republican, says her bill to ban polling places at Texas colleges and universities would help protect students from outside intruders who might aim to harm them. Considering that anyone can walk onto most any college campus at any time, no matter the intent, Isaac’s rationale is dubious at best.
The real-world effect of the Republican’s bill would be to make it harder for college students to vote. That would be shameful. There is no valid reason to prohibit county commissioners from authorizing voting sites on college campuses, as Isaac’s bill would. This anti-democratic measure has not had a hearing in the Texas House of Representatives, nor should it. And if the bill gets a hearing and a vote, members of the House should kill it.
Texas already makes voting unnecessarily difficult for college students with laws that prohibit the use of college IDs to vote and restrictions on same-day, online and automatic voter registration. Many students don’t have cars to drive to off-campus polling sites, which further complicates voting for young Texans trying to manage college classes, extracurricular activities and jobs. And it’s not just college students who would be inconvenienced or disenfranchised by Isaac’s legislation. Faculty and staff at colleges and universities also would be denied a convenient place to vote during their workday.
Since filing her bill, Isaac has doubled-down in the face of fierce criticism from voting rights advocates; she now says she is preparing legislation to ban polling sites at K-12 public and charter schools, too. That’s unfortunate; our state should be providing more opportunities for Texans of all ages to participate in democracy, not making it harder for some to vote.
Instead of backing Isaac’s bill, lawmakers should consider one introduced by Sens. Jose Menendez, D-San Antonio, and Nathan Johnson, D-Dallas, that would require more polling sites on Texas campuses. Currently, just half of the state’s public universities provide for in-person voting on campus, and only two of Texas’ nine Historically Black colleges and universities have polling sites. The Menendez-Johnson bill would place at least one polling site on campuses of schools with at least 5,000 students, two on universities with 10,000 students and provide for one extra site for every additional 10,000 students.
“If you have a college of a certain size I believe the students and the people who work there deserve a polling location that avails them of their right to vote,” Menendez told the Editorial Board, adding that he views Isaac’s bill as an infringement on college students’ civil liberties.
Isaac says students don’t need on-campus polling sites to vote.
Isaac has said students who don’t have ready access to polling sites can vote by mail.
“We must do everything we can to make our school campuses as safe as possible; they should not serve as a target-rich environment for those that wish to harm children,” Isaac said in a written statement after introducing her bill.
Isaac hasn’t explained how a polling site at a college campus is any more vulnerable to violence than those located in other places. What is clear is that the Republican’s bill would suppress the votes of young people who are increasingly casting ballots in larger numbers for Democrats. Voter turnout among college students nationwide soared from 52% to 66% in the 2020 presidential election with 70% saying they would pick Democrat Joe Biden over Donald Trump, the Republican incumbent who was preferred by just 18% of those young voters. A study by Tufts University’s Tisch College of Civic Life found that 27% of voters ages 18-to-29 cast ballots in the 2022 midterm elections nationally, and 63% of them voted for Democrats in House of Representatives elections.
It’s not the job of state legislators to limit our ability to vote based on their perceptions of how we might vote. Lawmakers should defeat Isaac’s bill and make it easier for college students to vote on campus instead.
Austin American-Statesman
