The line of Tarrant County registered voters waiting to cast their vote stretched out the door Monday at the Brown-Lupton University Union.
Early voting started a week later at the university, said Steve Raborn, a member of the Tarrant County Election Administration, because college campuses are used as part-time voting sites.
The heavier turnout comes the second week of early voting. Some of the smaller colleges in Tarrant County were open last week for early voting purposes and the larger campuses like TCU or University of Texas-Arlington are the targets this week, Raborn said.
“I think the general idea is to provide a location on campus for students and faculty," Raborn said. "Of course any voter registered in Tarrant County can come to that location. There are other voting locations in the vicinity that voters can go to as well.”
In 2008, early voting was held at the university for five days and there were a total of 3,960 voters who voted on campus, Raborn said.
The first day to early vote on campus was Monday. There was a total of 525 voters on Monday between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m.
In all of Tarrant County, there was a total of 26,251 voters Monday, Raborn said.
Tarrant County is expected to get a total of 432,000 early votes based on the number of votes from the 2008 presidential election, Raborn said.
According to a “Rock the Vote” survey, “19 percent of young adults 18 to 29 report they don't possess a government-issued photo ID with their current address. As a result, thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of college students will be forced to vote provisionally, for which they may not even receive verification as to whether or not their ballots count.”
Only students who are registered to vote in Tarrant County can vote early on campus at the BLUU on the first floor. Voters should bring a voter's registration certificate or a driver’s license to be eligible to vote.
“I don’t think it is necessarily important to vote early, but I do think it is important to vote in general,” Bailey Bridges, a senior majoring in speech pathology, said. “I voted early this year, because with school and work this was the best time that suited my schedule.”
Bridges changed her permanent location to Tarrant County so she could vote conveniently on campus.
For students who are registered in other counties, it is important they contact their home county to find out how to vote.
Early voting will continue until 7 p.m. on Friday in the BLUU's first floor.
