Thousands of students flooded the Prairie View Community Center Tuesday, Nov. 2 to make their voices heard on Election Day, but what was their experience and could things have turned out better?Melody Barnett, Prairie View’s KPVU- FM radio diva, felt the elections were not well organized. When voters arrived at the community center the line was very long and the wait was at least 30 minutes to an hour.
Barnett said it was strange to her because after waiting for as long as she did, there were several empty voting booths inside and that did not make sense to her and other students waiting in line to vote. She said she also did not understand why students were told over and over again that their registration information was not there, resulting in many having to reregister.
Prairie View senior David Thompson had to reregister a total of three times due to his information being “lost.” He said, “There are definitely some problems with finding registered voters in the system. When I went to vote, both in the primaries and the general election I had to register again and use the provisional ballot. This makes students feel frustrated and not want to deal with a situation like this.”
Prairie View graduate Shawn Burleson felt the community center was a good place to cast votes but also felt the place was too small.
Burleson said, “It’s good that everyone is getting out to vote but said voters should also make sure they know a candidate’s history. A lot of voters simply chose straight ticket voting because of the presidential candidates but that also determines who the officials of Prairie View will be.”
Lucius Wilkerson, who also voted at the community center, said, ” It has to be up to the individual to find out about political candidates and make informed decisions because some of the people who run on the Democratic ticket are the worst candidates, and those candidates do not want Prairie View to grow and expand. Because of this, the students who voted straight Democratic ticket unknowingly re-elected those same people back in office for another term.”
Prairie View junior Byron Jennings felt it was all right having the elections at the community center since transportation was provided, but it could have been better if they were held on campus, in a location such as the Memorial Student Center.
There was a consensus among the students that some improvements were needed, including better organization on Election Day, especially to prevent voter information being lost in the system. Many students did not find out about the straight ticket issue until after they voted, so many felt having a seminar on campus would assist voters in making well informed decisions next time.