GRAPHIC: A blurred picture of some one casting a vote into a ballot box with a red check mark over the image. — UCHL has increased its voter participation by over 15% in the past 2 years.

UHCL community gears up for election season

By Cesar Cardenas, Executive Editor On Sep 29, 2022 197 0

The upcoming midterm elections mark the first half of the Biden administration. The deadline for voter registration closes Oct. 11.

In Texas citizens can not register to vote online and must register via mail or in person. Prospective voters should register to vote or confirm their registration, and find their polling location via VoteTexas.gov.

Those that do not register to vote by Oct. 11 will not be able to vote in the upcoming midterm elections Nov 8th. Voter registration status may change for the following reasons: if a person moved, changed their legal name, switched political parties or if they have not voted in the past four years. Texas law does not require citizens to register with a political party in a primary election.

UHCL central campus is a designated polling location for all Harris County residents. Those that live in Galveston County can find more information at GalvestonVotes.org.

UHCL is a National Voter Friendly Campus for its civic engagement programs led by the Democracy Fellows and Office of Student Involvement & Leadership (OSIL). The university is also hosting voter registration and election events on campus in collaboration with various organizations such as OrganizeTexas and MoveTexas.

“The overall goal is to get underrepresented populations involved, registered and actually voting,” said Kylie Mankin, Harris County regional coordinator for MoveTexas. “All politics are local, if we just vote for president you are not going to see the change come down to your level. You have to vote for city elections, state elections and federal elections all together to really see the change that matters.”

MoveTexas hosts voter registration events every Tuesday and is open to all students interested in joining.

“If you wanna see change, do something about it, don’t just talk about it, be about it,” said Mellisa Salinas, president of UHCL’s MoveTexas chapter. “Change is inevitable but you can be a part of that change, you can participate in that change.”

U.S. Constitution Day events were held Sept. 19 and hosted by OSIL in partnership with OrganizeTexas. The events varied from a seminar on why voting is essential to a discussion panel on supreme court decisions.

“It’s important to not only educate our students on voting but also welcome the community and invite them into UHCL as well,” said Dillon Nash, assistant director of OSIL.

The university is also hosting an event Oct. 28 for National Vote Early Day where students, faculty staff and community members will be able to cast their vote early here on campus in the Garden Room in the Bayou Building.

This is the first major election cycle since the election of Joe Biden as president of the United States and the first cycle since Democrats held a House majority.

Positions up for election include governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general. Greg Abbott, Dan Patrick and Ken Paxton have been in their respective positions since 2015. Each are running again. All of these incumbents represent the Republican party.

The Democratic nominees contesting these incumbents are Beto O’Rourke running for Governor, Mike Collier running for Lieutenant Governor and Rochelle Garza running for Attorney General.

A debate between gubernatorial candidate O’Rourke and Gov. Abbott will take place Sept. 30 at 7 p.m. The debate will be broadcast and televised on most major channels.