Despite a lengthy fight from Texas A&M students, the Memorial Student Center, or MSC, will not be reinstated as an early voting location for the 2022 November election.
As they left in the middle of the Sept. 27 Commissioners Court meeting in a rage, dozens of students verbally expressed their displeasure with the court’s decision to remove the MSC early voting location discussion off the agenda moving forward, shutting down any possibility of its return before November. Precinct 1 Commissioner Russ Ford and Precinct 2 Commissioner Steve Aldrich were absent from the meeting due to an ongoing issue with a proposed tax bill.
Now only 27 days from early voting, College Station City Secretary Tonya Smith spoke at the meeting and said the entities involved in the election had to move forward with the court’s original decision.
“This late in the game, adding an additional location, not only will it be a rush, but we’ll also have to go back to our councils and, or our boards to amend our orders calling the elections,” Smith said at the meeting.
Smith cited multiple logistical issues preventing the MSC from being reinstated as an early voting location this year.
“You must re-test the equipment, the election equipment, all before Oct. 24, when early voting starts,” Smith said. “Rushing causes mistakes — mistakes in elections are detrimental. Then there is the cost of adding another polling location, that most of us did not budget for.”
Mobilize, Organize, Vote and Empower, or MOVE, President and biology senior Kristina Samuels attended the meeting, and said the students were not given a chance to testify after Brazos County Judge Duane Peters motioned to move the issue off the agenda.
“The commissioners began to deliberate and they weren’t even going to give us a chance to speak, even though we all signed up to speak in the room, even though we all filled out the form,” Samuels said. “We had every right to speak.”
Samuels said MOVE is now focused on next steps to best help students have the ability to vote.
“There isn’t an Aggie Spirit bus that goes to City Hall, and we asked for one and we were told no,” Samuels said. “[We’re] just trying to find funds to have charter buses or figure out some way that we can carpool with students.”
Precinct 3 Commissioner Nancy Berry confirmed the issue will not return to the agenda before November.
“We had reports today from both city secretaries who said that it would have to go back to the City Council, and that because of the Military Overseas Act, it would disenfranchise completely the military overseas vote and so we don’t want to do that,” Berry said. “I think it’s off the agenda for this election cycle.”
However, Berry said she and the other commissioners have voted to have the MSC return as an early voting location in 2023.
