Parking Main Reason Angelo State Does Not Offer On-Campus Voting

Today in San Angelo, the voting for the primary presidential elections took place, and results are still coming in. Many businesses and churches served as polling places for the community to come and vote for their favorite candidate. In a college town, it is hopeful that young students would get involved in the voting process.

The closest polling place near the Angelo State University campus was the West Texas Rehab Conference Center, and many students from campus made their way to the center. As of 3:30 pm today, 502 people had been through that establishment to vote, and a representative from the polling location said the voters were a good mix of students and citizens.

However, unlike other major universities in the nation and state of Texas, Angelo State University was not one of the designated polling places for Tom Green County. There are many reasons for this. President of Angelo State University Brian J. May explained that an “official polling place must have a controlled access both all the way in from outside to the inside.” Since ASU has a heavy traffic flow with students, it is not an ideal place for voting to take place. This is why churches and business are selected as designated polling places.

“Anyone who is a citizen can come in and vote, but no one else and no other function can take place because it needs to have impeded access ingress and egress. So it is very restrictive in that regard,” said May.

ASU officials did look into being a designated polling place for the 2016 primary presidential elections. Unfortunately, to be able to host as a polling place, parking must be provided for the voters coming in. Currently, parking for students alone is already a problem, so having that added burden would cause further burden and chaos. Therefore, this issue upsets the ability to have a more convenient location for students on campus to vote.

As for other areas close to campus, May stated,  “We are willing to listen if it is something that could be used as a voting place.”

Even though students don’t have a direct polling place on campus, many are available around the area. Angelo State University has many factors working against them for being a polling place in Tom Green County, but hopefully that won't stop students from going out to vote in the next two elections in May and November.