Nearly 20 million Americans are enrolled in higher education, and with the 2020 primary and general elections looming, student voting accessibility is being monitored nationally and locally.
Associated Student Body President Barron Mayfield identified a campus polling place as essential for student voters and said that while he is satisfied with campus efforts to improve accessibility, he feels that local officials have not done enough.
“I think we as a campus are doing an excellent job,” Mayfield said. “The key to increasing voting is a polling place on campus. And that’s something we’ve passed a resolution through (ASB) Senate for, but it’s really on the local election officials to take action, something they don’t seem interested in getting done.”
Lafayette County Circuit Clerk Jeff Busby, who took office in January, said that while he would like to see a polling place instituted on campus, he doesn’t believe it will happen soon. He believes that polling places are not too far for students and stated that the Oxford – University Transit buses will be transporting students to polling places in both of this year’s elections. The buses also went to polling places for the November 2019 election.
“I would like to see (a polling place on campus),” he said. “But I don’t foresee that happening anytime soon. Most of the precincts are in and around the university, so they’re not far, and there’s transportation to all precincts.”
Students with an on-campus post office mail box, for example, vote at the Mississippi State Extension Office, which is on Buddy East Parkway in Oxford. From the Student Union, this is an 11-minute drive from campus to the Extension Office for students to vote. On an OUT bus, which can have multiple stops depending on the route, this trip could take much longer than that.
Busby said that while he lacks knowledge on a campus polling place, he will research to determine the feasibility of it.
“The truth is, I haven’t looked into that much,” he said. “I’m speaking on not a lot of knowledge of that situation. A year from now, I could know a bit more about the ins and outs or why it would be feasible to do. I absolutely plan to look into it.”
In March 2019, Mississippi State University was designated a “Voter Friendly Campus” by the Fair Election Center’s Campus Vote Project. It is the only Mississippi university and one of only two Southeastern Conference schools with that distinction.
Campus Vote Project works with colleges and universities to reduce barriers to student voting by advocating for policy reforms and providing information for students to register and vote. It has staff in seven states and Washington, D.C. and is in partnership with campuses in 23 other states.
The Voter Friendly Campus program began in 2016 to help schools coordinate administration, faculty and student organizations to increase student voting. Nearly 250 campuses have entered the Voter Friendly Campus program, almost double the 125 reported in 2019.
To become a Voter Friendly campus, a school must develop a strategy with goals pertaining to upcoming elections. After an institution completes its plan, it can then be evaluated to receive the Voter Friendly Campus designation. The process includes fives phases, from the submission of interest to the actual designation, which lasts for two years.
Campus Vote Project National Director Mike Burns said that while Ole Miss has not had any problems that have kept it from attaining designation, it simply has not applied for consideration to be a Voter Friendly Campus. Burns, however, did cite accessibility issues with the State of Mississippi.
“I am not aware of specific issues at Ole Miss,” Burns said. “But I can say that Mississippi as a state could do a lot to improve everyone’s, including students, access to registration and voting.”
Burns named the lack of online voter registration and early in-person voting as the two major voting issues that Mississippi needs to reform, along with adding an on-campus polling place.
Campus Vote Project launched a program on February 20, with TV channel MTV, called “+1 the Polls.” It was created to help students and campuses advocate for on-campus voting sites.
In the State of Florida, where the Campus Vote Project worked to institute on-campus early voting for the 2018 election, nearly 60,000 people voted at 12 on-campus polling places, over half of which were ages 18 – 29. Most of the voters were Hispanic and Black voters, as well as high numbers of people who had not voted in 2016.
“Addressing these two issues alone could greatly expand the ability of all Mississippians to register and vote, including young and student voters who are far more familiar with conducting business online and may have trouble accessing polling places due to class and work schedules, along with access to transportation.”
Burns is not the only person criticizing Mississippi’s voting policies. Freshman Emily Stewart recently wrote an opinion article for The Daily Mississippian, titled “How Mississippi suppresses the college vote.”
In the article, Stewart, who is a native Tennessean, explains that since her state offers early voting, she can go home before Election Day to vote without having to request an absentee ballot and mail it back. Absentee ballots risk arriving late to the Secretary of State’s office or being lost by the Postal Service. They must also be notarized by a public official such as Circuit Clerk Jeff Busby, whose office receives the ballots.
Stewart said that she sees no reason why Mississippi has the restrictions it does, since Mississippi’s neighboring states have looser voting laws. Louisiana, like Tennessee, has early voting and does not require notarized absentee ballots, only that the ballot be signed by a witness.
“(Mississippi) is never going to say that they don’t want people to vote,” Stewart said. “But, they’re trying to put laws that make it to where people can’t vote easily.”
With a polling place on campus, students and faculty would both have the opportunity to vote, since it can be difficult for faculty to get to off-campus polling places too. Stewart argues that if Election Day cannot be made a federal holiday, the least officials can do is bring the election to campus.
“I don’t think you can do too much to allow more people to vote,” Stewart said. “Any little thing would make it easier.”
While Chancellor Boyce declined to answer specific questions regarding his recent student voting discussions with the ASB Senate or a campus polling location, he stated via email his commitment to making Ole Miss a voter friendly campus.
“The responsibility falls on us to ensure that we encourage involvement from all individuals, especially our students here at Ole Miss,” he said. “I will work hard to make our university a voter friendly campus and will ensure that we are providing opportunities for our students and members of the campus community to play their part.”
The Ole Miss student voting website, located at vote.olemiss.edu, had not been updated since before the November 2018 “midterm” elections. As of Thursday, February 20, the site now includes a current countdown clock until the March 10 primary election, as well as links to register, obtain an absentee ballot and for students who live on campus to find their polling place.