Marching to vote

Give it up for the 1,000 students at Prairie View A&M, an HBCU in Texas, who marched over seven miles to the polls on Tuesday to protest the lack of an early voting location on their campus. Freshman Brittney Veasey, who was voting for the first time, said she took the 2 1/2 -hour journey because she believes her vote will make a difference. "I feel like we're making history today," she said. "Instead of making it inconvenient, students should be encouraged to vote." This isn't the first instance of student voter disenfranchisement at the university, either. Perhaps the most blatant attempt to intimidate young voters took place at Prairie View A&M University in Texas. The school is the last place one would expect a battle over voting rights: Twenty-five years ago, when black students at A&M were denied the vote by white county officials, the Supreme Court issued its landmark ruling affirming that students can cast ballots where they go to school. But in November, District Attorney Oliver Kitzman published an open letter in a local newspaper accusing unnamed citizens of "feigned residency." Kitzman warned that any "illegal voting" would lead to a ten-year prison sentence and a $10,000 fine. For more on this problem and what students are doing to fight back, you can read my piece for TAP here.