The day before in the Blacksburg office, I helped out literally covering the campus with information to young voters. We dorm stormed with flyers telling people where to get rides if they needed them and to vote for Obama. After, we hung reminders on apartment doors. By then it was about 2am and I called it quits. I was told after that they did sidewalk chalk reminding people to vote. The next day the campus was covered with information and reminders to students, it was incredible.
I went to bed around 3am and woke up at 5:30am to go vote at 5:45am. There were so many people out already and I think I was the youngest person there. I fully believe that no one should have an excuse for not voting after seeing people in walkers be at the polls by 5:30am to wait in line for an hour. I finished up and immediately headed to the Obama office. I was sent to campus to remind people to vote before class. Most people either didn't care or already voted. I disagreed a lot with the idea that people would forget to vote. With that, I went back to the office after classes started.
Next, I canvassed a bit to remind people to vote. Not many people answered their doors and I talked to three people who didn't seem all that happy to see me.
Next, I drove people to the polls. We had a central gathering location for people to get rides from on campus which was a great idea. We had plenty of cars to drive people. This was great because the main voting location was at an awful location. It was about five miles away from campus at a tiny church that was down about a one and a half lane road with cars parked on both sides. It is easy to say that I was not happy with this. Obviously, as a huge proponent of student voting, for a student to have to go out of their way like this was ridiculous. No bus usually went down there and there was hardly any parking. One of my instructors even said she went twice and was unable to vote. I had WDBJ7 interview me and I expressed these same views to them.
It's extremely frustrating that there is no voting on campus. Most young people do not vote because of availability. People often wonder why young people don't vote because they do not see things like this occurring. I also disagree with the notion that students should not vote where they go to school.
Many Blacksburg residents were arguing that students need to register at home and vote there. First off, that makes it more difficult to vote. Absentee voting is much more difficult than just voting in person. You have to request a ballot then send it off again when you receive it. I believe that students have a stake in where they go to school. They spend their money there and what they do has an effect on the local environment. If anything, students spend more time at their school than they do at their homes.
What was most comforting was how excited people were to vote. Often times, many people did not talk a lot to me in the car when I drove them but you could just feel the excitement brewing. A lot were freshmen and sophomores who had never voted. I just hope a poor voting experience has not deterred them from voting in the future. When I was that year, I found it frustrating to get to the polls to vote but being the activist I was, I saw how important it was to vote.
Surviving on little sleep, I went back to the office around 2pm. I had some lunch provided by the wonderful families of the surrounding areas and napped for two hours. I'm not one to be able to survive on little sleep. I woke up ready to go however. I went back and motivated my roommate to drive some people. With that, we saw that the voting location had not improved much. There were people directing traffic and that was it.
Shortly after, the polls closed and my roommate and I got some food. We watched election results pour in and headed to a election watch party. When the polls on the West Coast were closed, CNN called the election and Virginia for Obama. What a rush. People ran into the streets screaming and people poured out of their houses. It was exhilarating. All my exhaustion subsided. I went to bed shortly after and slept for ten hours.
What I find most amazing about this whole election is that in talking to every day people, many cannot believe the results. Just yesterday, I was talking to a black coworker about the election and he got chills still and so did it. Simply incredible.
If any every questions your right to vote there remind them how much tax revenue students contribute by shopping in local stores, eating in local restaurants, paying rent (indirectly contributing to property taxes), and drawing thousands in for VT events. Remind them of how much volunteering college students do in local communities and jobs student demand creates there.
None of this is meant to disparage local residents (I am one of Charlottesville) but one should ask why shouldn't students have a voice in their college towns? University students should have the right to voice their opinions in the place where they spend so much time, money, and energy.
I would like you to find out WHY they had the kids vote at that church. There must have been a closer one in Blacksburg. Sounds fishy to me. Unless it is a regular polling place this may need to be looked into.
Thanks again for all you hard work.
My son is a VT grad and wish that he could have voted in Blacksburg. He voted absentee.