Wednesday afternoon, more than 10 Ball State students sat in the Delaware County Building, taking part in an election board meeting. Their purpose was clear: to get satellite early voting in the L.A. Pittenger Student Center.
In 2008, the board couldn't pull together an unanimous vote for an early voting location at the Student Center. Kaye Whitehead, Delaware County Republican Party chairwoman at the time, argued that student votes could be bought by freebies, such as a hot dogs and T-shirts.
"I think students can be bought just as much as any other citizen could be bought, but it's actually illegal [to bribe] to get votes," said Emily Rodriguez, sophomore advertising major and team leader for the Ball State Students for Barack Obama. "We won't see ‘oh, you get a T-shirt or a piece of candy [if you vote for me].'"
For the midterm elections in 2010, satellite voting was not allowed, again due to a lack of support, said Delaware County clerk Steven Craycraft in an earlier Daily News story.
Ball State groups Students for Barack Obama and University Democrats said they want to see it changed this year. The main issue raised was that polling locations off campus are inaccessible. Precinct lines were redrawn because of the 2010 Census, which means that students will have to venture farther from campus to vote.
"Establishing an early voting location on campus is not only imperative for students, now that over 95 percent have no place to vote on campus," Nolan Born, president of the University Democrats, said. "But [it] would also be tremendously beneficial for the citizens of Delaware County."
The Election Board will not vote on the issue of a satellite early voting location until a later meeting. For more information, go to the Facebook page for "Early Voting- Muncie."
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