UHCL helps students become educated about the Texas primaries
The Texas Democratic and Republican primaries are scheduled for March 3, 2020. The primaries are where voters narrow down the field of candidates running for positions like U.S. President, U.S. Senate, congressional and legislative offices, the State Board of Education, the railroad commission and judicial seats. The registration to vote in the Primaries was Feb. 3, but there is still time to register to vote in the general election in November.
Texas participates in Super Tuesday, which is when Democrats and Republicans hold the most primary elections in one day. This year, 14 states are holding primaries or caucusing on Super Tuesday. On March 3, polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. with early voting occurring Feb. 18 – 28. If no candidates get a majority of the votes, then the top two candidates will head to a primary runoff on May 26.
Since Texas is an open primary state, voters can decide what party they want to vote for at the polls: Democratic, Republican or third-party. In closed primary states, like Connecticut or Nebraska, voters have to be registered members of the party they want to vote for prior to election day; independents cannot participate.
Reports from the National Study of Learning, Voting and Engagement (NSLVE) from the Institute for Democracy and Higher Education at Tufts University found that college student voting turnout has increased over the past few elections. In the 2018 midterm elections, the national turnout for registered students was 55%, up from 29.6% in 2014. The National Student Voting Rate (NSVR) doubled from 2014 to 2018 from 19.3% to 40.3%. NSVR is the number of student voters divided by the estimated number of students who were eligible to vote.
University of Houston- Clear Lake is working to increase the college voter turnout by providing voter resources to students on campus. Student Government Association President Mohamed AbdelGilil is encouraging students to register, vote and become educated on the candidates running.
“College students have a huge, immense, powerful voice especially because we are growing up with environmental challenges, climate and other major issues,” said AbdelGilil. “It would be in the college student’s interest to go and vote.”
Laws passed by elected official at any level of government can affect the everyday life of a college student. For example, AbdelGilil noted a recent law passed that requires the results of all student evaluations to be released online. Previously, students did not have access to the results of the evaluations, even though they were expected to participate in the process. AbdelGilil said this is one example of how college students can affect change with their votes.
The Office of Student Involvement and Leadership (OSIL) has coordinated events like “Rock the Vote” where they set tables out around campus and encourage students to register. OSIL also puts flyers on bulletin boards called “Election Connection” in the SSCB Student Lounge dedicated to the 2020 presidential election, so students can familiarize themselves with the election process.
The office also plans on putting flyers in the Bayou Building. All the full-time staff in OSIL were deputized to register students in five counties: Harris, Brazoria, Montgomery, Chambers and Galveston. A deputy is someone who can officially register voters in the state of Texas and are appointed by county voter registrars and help increase the voter registration numbers.
Mary LeBlanc, coordinator of community engagement in OSIL, said the reason the staff became deputized was to give UHCL students another option for registering to vote in hopes of helping to increase civic engagement on campus.
“This helps us start the conversation with students about their civic engagement and helps us educate them about their rights,” LeBlanc said.
LeBlanc said that if a student wishes not to register, she hopes they at least ask questions and learn from civic engagement activities.
“We hope that encouraging students to register and understand what is happening civically will have the positive effect and increased voter turnout from our students,” LeBlanc said. “Civic engagement is important for anyone, even non-college students, but with the increase in college student turnout, their needs and wants can be better heard.”
Students not registered for the general election in November can visit the OSIL located in the SSCB Student Lounge. Any full-time employee in the office can assist an eligible person to register.
There are many locations on campus to find voter registration forms including the Hawk Help Desk in the Bayou Building, Student Assistance Center in Student Services Classroom Building, and the management office at the University Forest Apartments. Forms are also available at the Pearland campus in the Student Affairs Office and in the lobby at UHCL Texas Medical Center.
In Harris County, voters are no longer assigned a polling location. There are over 350+ polling location in Harris county. An early voting poll location near UHCL is the Freeman Branch Library on Diana Lane.