Monday, August 15, was an interesting day for Appalachian State University (ASU) students. The day before classes brought about an air of nervousness, excitement and most importantly, anticipation. Freshman easily worried about finding the right buildings and getting to classes on time, whereas the rest of us were trying to recuperate from the night before. But Monday, August 15 held another significance for ASU students, one that many have yet to become aware of. That night, the Watauga County Board of Elections (BOE) sat in a room full of concerned residents—comprised of not only life-long Wataugans, but also students and faculty members—and refused to come to an agreement on an early-voting plan for the county during the general election in November.
Due to the Fourth Circuit of Appeals court ruling to strike down North Carolina’s discriminatory Voter I.D. law, the BOE had to re-evaluate the one-stop early voting plan made for Watauga County. In other words, what this insinuates is that ASU may or may not retain it’s on-campus voting site in the November presidential election. As of right now, we could potentially only have one voting site (the Watauga County Administration Building) open for early voting. By state law, when a plan is not unanimous by the county board of elections, the State Board of Elections (SBOE) will adopt a plan for the county.
As of right now, there is no conclusive voting site planned for the ASU campus. But students, this is time to speak up. It is estimated that there will be over 17,000 early votes cast in Watauga County alone this year. We cannot sit idly by and give three people the right to dictate when it is and is not acceptable to utilize our constitutional right. Voting is not something we should have to continually fight for, yet this is breeching the 12th year of on-going debate between the county and ASU on the “right” place for on-campus voting.
Both BOE members Bill Aceto and Stella Anderson have submitted one-stop early voting sites to the SBOE, and we are now forced to wait longer for something that should not even be a discussion. Please take the time to research and understand what we as students are facing when it comes to our right to vote.
Stella Anderson’s plan included 429 one-stop hours at the following sites:
- Admin Building – 125 total hours
- ASU Student Union – 80 total hours
- Deep Gap, Blowing Rock, Meat Camp and Western Watauga – 224 total hours
Bill Aceto’s plan included 358 one-stop hours at the following sites:
- Admin Building: 113 total hours
- ASU Legends – 49 hours
- Deep Gap, Blowing Rock, Meat Camp, and Western Watauga – 196 total hours
Please feel free to comment why you think voting is important and what we as students can do to implement a forceful change regarding our university’s status among county government.
