ARLINGTON, Texas—Arlington residents—some of them, at least—head to the polls today to vote on five bond proposals that could provide up to $200 million for capital projects and seven proposed amendments to the city’s charter.
Turnout is expected to be significantly lower than in the November presidential election, among young voters as well as the general population. Just a few months ago, concerns about the youth vote were front and center.
Last September during the election cycle a major debate was waged to potentially remove many colleges from early voting locations. On this list of locations was the University of Texas at Arlington. This push to limit early voting locations led by Judge Tim O’Hare failed in the County Commissioners Court on a 4-1 vote.
With college student voters being such a contentious part of the prior election, it begs the question: How much of an impact do student voters actually have on Tarrant County Elections?
According to data provided by Tarrant County, 10% of all early voting ballots were cast on college campuses, four of which were included in O’Hare’s proposal to the Commissioner’s Court. Of the 65,975 early votes cast on college campuses, UTA accounted for 9,754 of them.
UTA participated in a study by Tufts University, which investigated voter turnout among students. This is a part of the Institute for Democracy and Higher Education push for a higher voter turnout rate among youth voters.
“One of our highest numbers of unregistered voters is where the dorms are,” Candace Sublett, executive director of the Tarrant County Democratic Party, said.
Sublett said one of the largest concentrations of unregistered voters in the county is located in the areas surrounding the UTA campus. She said around 7,200 people who live in the area around campus are of voting age, with about 5,000 of them unregistered.
“But that could mean that some of them are living there, but they’re registered to vote in another county back at home,” she said.
While this is certainly a possible share of the unregistered voters, Sublett still was shocked to see just how many of the eligible voters were unregistered.
“I know without a shadow of a doubt y’all need to do voter registration on y’all’s campus and not just over in the middle part,” Sublett said, referring to UTA’s voter registration outreach efforts.
She argued that the campus needs to extend its efforts to the residential areas surrounding UTA to find out just how many students living there are eligible for registration.
“Sometimes they have not voted before, and college students are very, very busy,” Tarrant County League of Women Voters President Janet Mattern said. “They have not gotten into a routine of voting, whereas people like me have voted for 40 years now. So that means that I’ve gotten into a routine. I know how to vote, I know where to vote.”
Mattern said students may have a variety of factors making it more difficult for them to vote.
“If you’re a student, and have so many other things going on, you might be, you know, new to the area,” Mattern said. “They may not have a car. They may not have time to go on Election Day or to travel to the site because so many students work or have families or have just a busy schedule with everything that student life has to offer.”
Mattern said those factors mean that it’s important to ensure students have access to voting.
“We just have to provide that opportunity,” Mattern said. “And if you don’t provide the opportunity, then you start having the process where you prevent people from coming to the polls, where you suppress their vote, where they do not want to come out. And the whole point of a democracy is to make sure every voice is heard.”
Mattern and the Tarrant County League of Women Voters champion ballot access, and they work to ensure that the electorate has all the resources it needs to stay informed about the political actions in their community.
“I keep hearing from some commissioners that we need to have more voting centers for the older population because more of them vote,” Mattern said. “Well, but if you have more voting centers for students and the younger voters, then maybe more of the students would vote as well.”
When the question of college early voting sites was center stage at the Tarrant County Commissioner’s Court, Mattern and the Tarrant County League of Women Voters traveled to the county administration building in Fort Worth. She found herself parked beside a van of college students, also heading to the Commissioner’s Court.
“It was the best show of democracy when everyone spoke together about the importance of early voting sites on college campuses,” Mattern said. “So, participate in democracy. That’s what makes it change. That’s what makes our world a better place is by working together.
To see an interactive data visualization breaking down UTA student voting by field of study, please click here.
