By: Max Hoener
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (UATV) – The Janelle Y. Hembree Alumni House serves as one of Washington County’s early voting locations, giving students and faculty a location to vote on campus. Registered voters in Washington County are able to use this location October 29th and October 30th.
The Alumni House aims to keep the voting process fast and easy, and according to one voter, they are doing a good job.
Washington County voter Amelia McGowan said the process was “very easy” and continued to say “I love having the accessibility to the University. It is easy to take a few steps over on my lunch break.”
The proximity to campus has inspired Democracy Fellows, a nonpartisan organization on campus, to try and encourage students to vote by staging an event for students to walk over to the Alumni House in groups.
In the spirit of Halloween, they named their campaign “Don’t Ghost The Polls”, and gathered students in front of the Union before walking over to the Alumni House to vote.
“It’s a fun way to get folks out to our on campus voting center,” said Director of the Center For Community Engagement Claire Allison. “We just wanted to create an event where folks could gather up and walk over there if they don’t know where the Alumni House is, or just feel better about going in a group.”
Not everything at the Alumni House has been smooth sailing. Arkansas is one of 26 states that does not allow “same-day voter registration”, where voters can register to vote at the polls.
Barbara Verdery, the polling site supervisor at the Alumni House, said, “Voters have come in and it has been very steady, but we have had a few voters who are not registered in Washington County.”
Verdery also mentioned that there has been communications with out-of-state students who are eligible to vote, just not in Arkansas.
“Because this is the University, we do have students who are from out of state and they think they can vote any place and not be registered, which is not the case. They have to be registered in Washington County in order to vote in the Washington County elections, including the presidential race,” said Verdery.
“Just because the sign says “Vote Here” doesn’t mean you can walk in and be registered in Missouri or Texas, you have to vote where you are registered to vote,” said Verdery.
Vedery had advice for students voting for the first time.
“The best thing to do is to go to voterview.org and put in your name and date of birth and that will pull up your ballot so you are educated when you come to vote,” said Verdery.
UATV News will continue to update voters on where and when polling locations throughout Fayetteville and Washington County will be open.