Texas County Declines To Reopen On-Campus Early Voting Site

WASHINGTON, D.C. — On Tuesday, Sept. 27, the Brazos County Commissioner’s Court took no action to reopen an on-campus early voting location at Texas A&M University (the largest campus in the state) in College Station for the 2022 midterm elections, despite backlash from students and several commissioners admitting it was a mistake to close the site. The Comissioner’s Court voted in July to move the early voting site at Texas A&M’s student center to a location off campus. Now, students will have to travel up to 30 minutes off-campus in order to vote during Texas’ early voting period between Oct. 24 and Nov. 4.

Brazos County is just the latest Texas county to limit student voters’ access to polling locations. Bexar County initially planned to limit early voting sites, only to add locations at college campuses after pushback from students and other voters. In 2018, students at Prairie View A&M University — a historically Black university — sued Waller County, alleging the county’s failure to open polling locations on campus amounted to voter suppression.