HAMPTON — The City Council is interested in adding a voting precinct near Hampton University to address student voter accessibility after students waited in three-hour lines to vote during last year’s presidential election.
The City Council discussed pursuing an additional precinct at a meeting last week. At that meeting, the council shot down proposals from the city’s Electoral Board to move East Hampton’s polling location from Phoebus High school, which currently sits about 300 feet outside the precinct, to a more central location. The council also rejected proposals to close four precincts and redraw seven others.
Phoebus High School is where Hampton University students voted in November’s presidential election. Despite having additional staff on site on Election Day, the precinct was overwhelmed with long lines and many students completing same-day voter registration waited nearly three hours to fill out paperwork.
Same-day voter registration took effect in Virginia in 2022. Nearly 600 Hampton University students utilized it during last year’s general election, according to Hampton Electoral Board Chair Rebecca Winn. While it’s great to see such high turnout for students, Winn said it’s the city’s responsibility to improve voting accessibility for them.
“They’re kids, they’re like 18 or 20. They’re not registering however long it is in advance,” Winn said. “They don’t have the rules on the front end, so oftentimes, college students are left out of the voting process.”
Creating a 31st precinct in Hampton is not a simple change. State law requires each precinct have a polling place within a mile of the precinct or inside it with between 500 and 5,000 registered voters.
Hampton City Attorney Courtney Sydnor said in an emailed statement the city will work with the city Office of Elections to make the new precinct and the City Council will review and adjust the proposal. There will then be a public hearing process and 60-day attorney general review before any changes are made.
Sydnor said during last week’s meeting it is unlikely for any potential changes to be implemented before this year’s June primaries.
Hampton University did not respond to requests for comment this week about the proposal.
Voting accessibility concerns for Hampton University students extend beyond same-day-registration, according to Winn, and include issues with receiving mail-in ballots for out-of-state students.
Phoebus High School is also a nearly 40-minute walk from Hampton University. The university arranged for buses to transport students to the polling location. But Winn said scheduling conflicts with buses required many students to walk or Uber to their polling place and many students worried about long lines interfering with their attendance for classes, practices or work.
The university did excuse absences for voters at the Electoral Board’s request, Winn said.
Winn said the barriers are enough to discourage students from participating in the process again, and should be addressed by creating accessibility that matches that of other universities throughout the state.
A 1979 U.S. Supreme Court decision protects college and university students against voter disenfranchisement. Many universities in Virginia, including Old Dominion University, William & Mary and the University of Virginia have polling locations on the edges of their campuses.
“With regard to colleges and the needs of colleges and universities where there are dorms and on-campus living options, it would be treating Hampton University more equally to the way others are being treated,” Winn said.
NAACP Hampton Branch Chair Gaylene Kanoyton said students have grown more politically engaged since they first advocated for a Hampton University precinct in 2012, and have continued to show up despite experiencing disenfranchisement.
“Students have been advocating to have a polling precinct on their campus for a while. This is nothing new,” Kanoyton said. “They have the voting numbers to have a precinct. The numbers are there. We want to always expand the access to vote, it’s essential for a healthy democracy.”
Devlin Epding, 757-510-4037, [email protected]
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