With the 2007 Election underway, counties from all over Texas were voting to make improvements within their communities. Brandon Teague and Dwain Stewart both students and agriculture majors at Prairie View A&M University, are looking to get the whole student body involved in Election Day 2007.
Teague a graduate assistant and Stewart a senior at Prairie View A&M University, both work at the city of Prairie View fire department, located on 502 Ellen Powell Dr. The election was regarding the Emergency Services District Commissioner. The election could provide the Prairie View fire department with ladder trucks, which they don’t have. Hempstead and Waller are the nearest counties that have a ladder truck.
Both Teague and Stewart rallied students to vote. To help students know how to vote, Teague and Stewart publicized the event by passing out more than 4,000 flyers and visiting numerous classrooms on campus to help students get registered to vote. Teague and Stewart also informed Judge Dewayne Charleston and Mayor Frank Jackson about the concern for ladder trucks to help get the concern out to people. Teague and Stewart running for election wasn’t a cut and dry process. They both had to go to Memorial City in Houston just to get an application to run for office.
When Nov. 6 arrived, Teague and Stewart were anxious about the results. When 6 p.m. rolled around, only 174 people had voted, approximately 2.1 percent of the entire student body. The 174 people who voted are equivalent to the number of students who live in a dorm in University College, a relatively low figure.
When informed about the election’s progress, Teague said, “I felt it was a big disappointment. We wished more people could have voted, especially since we passed out over 4,000 flyers around campus and visited classrooms to inform students about the election.”
When asked what is going to be needed for more students to vote Teague said, “It will take something bad to happen to a student in order for people to get the message and vote. With the fire department having a ladder truck, it will guarantee our chances of saving students in second and third floors dorms in case of a fire.” In the final count Teague received 290 votes and Stewart received 280 votes.
Brian Nichols and Tommy Davis won the election. Davis, is the president of Emergency Services and a campus employee.
Nichols and Davis were chair members in Emergency Services last year, and were against the proposed arrivals of ladder trucks.