Issues:
Comments
Jeff Deluca, Austin Gilmore, and Nathan Westmoreland (along with other students) deserve a big congrats for their hard work on this issue! I've seen them work over the last year to make the case for a site on campus, and work with staff at UNC to go through many sites before finding one that met the criteria of the Board of Elections. Good job guys!
I know many people have advocated for and worked hard to locate a more central campus site. I'll add Mary Cooper, Cari Jeffries, Shelby Hudsbeth and the RHA to your list. It was Cari and Shelby who alerted me that the rooms above the dining hall might be workable, the RHA who had reserved the rooms but readily agreed to move their banquet to another location and Mary who attended two BOE meetings and spoke passionately and convincingly to the Board. I don't think I've worked on any other project on campus that brought out as much goodwill, accomodation and cooperation as finding an early voting site did.Linda Convissor
Congrats to everyone who made this happen! It's so important to encourage the younger generations to build good habits of civic participation starting with the first years of voting eligibility. And it's very important to make voting accessible to students given how integral a part of the town's fabric the university is and has always been.
Please double-check with Tracy Reams, but I understood the motion the BOE passed yesterday was that early voting would start at the BOE office on April 19 and start at the four other sites the following Monday, April 23. They will have Saturday voting on April 28 and May 5. The Rams Head site will be open 9-1 on those two Saturdays and 11-6 on weekdays.The BOE also encouraged voters to register before coming in to vote to help cut down on long lines.
Thanks for these specifics! I'm incredibly thankful for everyone who put in the work to make on-campus voting a reality again -- it's something we absolutely need, and I'm glad to see the broader community and University administration agreeing.
Not sure the new hours are "more productive" than regular hours. Regardless of the time a polling place closes if a person is in line at closing, the law allows them to vote. What is sad is this place is to be open 11-6 and most will wait until close to 6 to show up. I keep hearing how convenient this place will be for the students. If the younger folks can get out of bed early enough to protest a tuition hike, they can certainly show up early in the day to vote. I noticed in past elections, people would go to early vote and stand in line for an hour but there were no lines on election day, so why not wait until election day and go to your correct polling place?
What was wrong with the previous location (next to Granville Towers Dorms)?
Jeff DeLuca reports on FB that it will be the Rams Head Center between south and central campuses. 700 parking spaces, room for an early voting location location, easy walk from south and central campuses, it's on 3 bus routes and also walking distance from the medical campus.