New York Judge Orders Polling Place at Vassar College
WASHINGTON, D.C. — On Thursday, Nov. 3, a New York judge granted a request by the League of Women Voters of the Mid-Hudson Valley, a Vassar College professor and a Vassar College student to establish an on-campus polling site at Vassar College for the upcoming Nov. 8 midterm elections. This decision comes out of a lawsuit filed just two days ago in which the petitioners alleged that the Dutchess County Board of Elections and its Republican commissioner failed to comply with their legal duty to designate an on-campus polling location. The petitioners asserted that the “nearest early voting sites to the Vassar College campus each require an hour’s walk to reach and return, and are not accessible by public transportation from Vassar College” and that the “refusal of the Board to designate an on-campus polling location for the November 8…election not only violates New York law, but further abridges the voting rights of voters who reside on the Vassar College campus, including but not limited students, faculty, staff, and their families.” In a victory for voters, Vassar students, faculty, staff and families will now have access to a convenient polling location.
In the order the judge held that the “plain language” of New York’s election law “specifically mandates the designation of a voting polling place on a college or university campus where, as here, the petitioner demonstrated that the college or university campus contains three hundred or more registrants to vote at an address on such college or university campus.” Today’s order is a victory for young voters, who often are the target of Republican-sponsored voter suppression schemes, but are fighting back against these attempts to disenfranchise them and winning.