Boone 1, Boone 2, and Boone 3 precincts are where the major concentrations of Appalachian State University students live. Two of those precincts had -- until yesterday's train wreck of a BOE meeting -- polling places on campus. Until yesterday's BOE meeting, ASU also had an Early Voting site which served 2,500 faculty and staff and some considerable portion of 17,589 students. It was a heavily utilized Early Voting site. It was, in fact and in keeping with Anne Marie Yates's word choice, convenient.
Nothing's convenient now. The new polling place for all three of those Boone precincts is now located at the Agricultural Conference Center on the far western edge of what had been Boone 3 -- in other words, as far as the Republicans could locate the polling place from ASU and still remain technically within the borders of the new mega-precinct. There are no sidewalks along Poplar Grove Road. Walking there is most inconvenient.
Does Anne Marie Yates really think that we're that stupid? Does she think the student voters at ASU won't notice the attempt to discourage, limit, and suppress their vote so that her brother Mark Templeton, and the rest of the "Templeton ticket" on the ballot this fall, can take control of the Boone Town Council?
That's the convenience she's looking for.
We trust the voters of Boone will show the Templetons some truth at the ballot boxes this fall, since Anne Marie in particular appears unfamiliar with it.
6 comments:
The new precinct has parking which the student union does not have and is about one mile away from the union. It may be closer for some students. Imagine having to walk one mile to a voting precinct! Pamela must have her thong in a wad over this change as she will have to get the students to work and walk in order to vote. Poor thing! Why students get to vote in local elections is a wonder as they could care less about how the town is operated.
If this thing goes through we need to organize a walk from downtown & the campus to the Ag Center on one of those early voting days, to highlight the inadequacy and inconvenience of the site.
Having parked and voted at the Student Union in the last election, I know the first comment to be false.
Not Really - you'll need some police officers to escort you along that road. It's dangerous, with NO place for pedestrians.
The ASU Bookstore is on College Street which has sidewalks connecting to King Street.
King Street, which also has sidewalks, leads directly to the Ag Center.
From the ASU Bookstore it is .7 of a mile to the Ag Center.
How will the poor students ever overcome this debilitating obstacle?
For your info, many rural voters have to drive several miles to get to their voting precincts. And if some rural people wanted to vote early, they would have to travel up to 25 miles or more to Boone, which takes considerable time. I thought that an extra voting site should have been selected in the west and east ends of the county. But no, the Repubs, once again, ignored and insulted the rural sections.
And you guys, Jerry, are concerned that college voters, etc, will have to walk for a few minutes more.
I do not agree with the choices for the BOE majority, nor the procedures and some of the decisions made, but you Dems are getting a taste of your own medicine.
And, as usual, I wonder if you will post this comment.
College student't time is much more valuable than other peoples. They only have 15 minutes between classes and, God forbid, they wouldn't want to vote during the recreational time when they don't have classes.
On the other hands, rich Republicans who are running businesses which cheat honest citizens out of their money can easily take a few hours off and have their chauffeurs drive them to a polling place.
Considering the importance of a college voter's time, I would suggest that we establish a ballot delivery service. Perhaps Boone Take Out could deliver ballots to their dorm rooms, wait for them to be filled out and then return them to the elections office?
Post a Comment