Early voting starts today in Texas. In Waller County, a primarily rural county about 60 miles outside Houston, the county made the decision to offer only one early voting location: at the County Courthouse in Hempstead, TX, the county seat.
Prairie View A&M students organized to protest the decision, because they felt it hindered their ability to vote. For background, Prairie View A&M is one of Texas’ historically Black universities. It has a very different demographic feel than the rest of the county. There has been a long history of dispute over what the students feel is disenfranchisement. There was a lot of outrage in 2006, when students felt they were unfairly denied the right to vote when their registrations somehow did not get processed.
According to an article in today’s Houston Chronicle:
Waller County has faced numerous lawsuits involving voting rights in the past 30 years and remains under investigation by the Texas Attorney General’s Office based on complaints by local black leaders. Those allegations, concerning the November 2006 general election, related to voting machine failures, inadequate staffing and long delays for voting results.
The article adds,
“I was angry after registering to vote in the 2006 election only to be turned away at the voting booth,” said sophomore Dee Dee Williams.
So what are the students doing?
1000 students, along with an additional 1000 friends and supporters, are this morning walking the 7.3 miles between Prairie View and Hempstead in order to vote today. According to the piece I saw on the news (there’s no video up, so I can’t link to it), the students plan to all vote today. There are only 2 machines available at the courthouse for early voting, so they hope to tie them up all day and into the night.
I love stories like this. In the face of an obvious ploy to suppress the vote, these young people stood up for their rights and showed that they will not be cowed. Republicans should be worried, because this is a committed electorate.
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Yes! Keep fighting the good fight! More power to the students and friends of PVA&M!
Useless bigoted state. Republicans aren’t human. Let’s run em out on a rail this November and NEVER let them come back. Beat them when they are down.
That’s awesome. I hope people all across the nation start doing stuff like this to push back against the voter suppression tactics that the Republican party always employs. It’s time to take our country back.
Gee I wonder why Michelle Obama feels the way she does . Leave it to that toilet they call Texas to
prove her right. I hope Mexico takes that piece shit back and makes it into something someone
could be proud of . Remember the Alamo they got their ass kicked just like the south did ….
I live in Houston close the beltway 8 SW side and this is the first time I’m hearing about this story =/
Shows just how our deaf, dumb, and blind media keeps us informed about what really is going on around us even ever so close.
Eh hem, the state I was born and live in isn’t useless, but comments like that are. Not all Texans are racist or bigoted, and you’ll probably have better luck changing their political leanings by not referring to their state as “useless”. That said, you know these guys kept all the money meant to buy more voting machines and bought new hemi’s :D
I admire this style of activism. It is both passionate and rational. However, for the sake of honesty, that is not 2000 people. Maybe 300-400, but not 1000 students and 1000 friends and supporters.
Other than that, this is the type of story that inspires.
Kudos to these students! BRAVO!!!
There’s a certain aroma in the air. Change, anyone? Yes, the rethuglic**ts are in for quite a dose.
They walked seven miles?
Now those are some young people who want to vote.
“Pro Freedom and Pro Democracy” Republicans still working their sinister magic in the dark art of voter suppression.
WHAT LOOKS INSPIRING ON THE OTHER SIDE, IN WISCONSIN, IS THAT THE D LOSER IS POLLING MORE THAN THE R TOTAL. Sorry, didn’t mean to holler, but I hape the difference lasts until November.
CD @ 10:
And those are some young people who stood up to really care about our country instead of being beaten down by apathy. More power to them, we sure need the help.
bmw 528 @ 13:
2008 version of the march on Selma. Conservatives tried to supress then and they are trying it again now. The more things change the more they stay the same. It didn’t work then and it doesn’t look like it’s going to work now.
It feels good to see that! Damn, maybe America is waking up afterall.
Yeah! Love ya, Prairie View!
Let’s hope you lit a prairie fire under the behinds of your fellow students nation-wide!
AWESOME!!!!!! this should be a BIG story! (should be)
Video from KHOU
AMAZING!
In view of all that walking these fine folks did, it brings to mind Nike’s slogan from the recent past:
Just Do It!
I feel like clapping right now.
O……
Oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
Jaden @ 5:
I hear the NeoCon/Repub apologist argument very often. They praise the “provisional ballot” that the disenfranchised is given and point out how seldom the victim returns (two weeks after the election is over) to confirm their identities.
Of course they don’t expect people to return to renew their vote after the race is over. But they know that it SOUNDS reasonable to the type of American who still believes that WMD’s were found in Iraq.
You can fool some of the people all of the time. Else you woudn’t be able to find a Republican in office.
I was born and raised in Texas. Ever since I moved to a so-called “progressive” city in the Midwest, I’ve gotten lots of snorts and sneers whenever people find out this fact about me. I’ve gotten so sick of people telling me that they hate Texans…to my face! Listen, there are a lot of things to hate about Texas, Bush being #1, but these people are why you should love Texans. They are out there fighting the good fight, just like people all over the rest of the country.
I hope we see more actions like this with the young voters of this country. Very moving!
“Texas Attorney General”
That is funny. What is that job entail, exactly?
Wouldn’t this be a position twice removed from ANY sort of legal background or experience?
I expect this person’s only responsibility would be pulling the switch on the electric chair- and it is full time.
Certainly not 2000 people but certainly a lot regardless..
Fantastic!
It just boggles the mind that in 2008, more than a century and a half since the ratification of the 15th Amendment, many states continue to use these despicable tactics to suppress the African American vote.
I think it’s about time we invoke the little-known second section of the 14th Amendment, under which states that pull stunts like this are supposed to lose representation in the House, and thus lose electoral votes. They should have done it to Florida in 2000, and they should do it to Texas if the evidence is there.
kahootz @ 7:
How do you know the number of students that marched? How can we possibly know how far back that line of people extends outside the border of the picture?
Finally, a decent protest! I was starting to worry that Americans have just given up trying to fight the republifasiests.
Fucking awesome.
Fired Up Ready to Go!!!!
Its these people that are the we that Obama talks about.
I hope Obama talks about this in his speeches in Texas, because this is what his campaign is all about.
Very impressive. Congrats to those young people! As a number of people stated in previous posts — the MSM should be highlighting this great story.
Unfortunately, voter suppression WILL be a factor in Texas. Hang on to your seats!
Karen @ 27:
I understand your incredulity. However, you must realize, if there were more students far behind this particular group, the helicopter would have taken pictures of them. Why would it not? It’s a helicopter. It’s not difficult to hover and get the rest of the shot.
Furthermore, I also recognize the fact that FOX Spews will report this event as having about 10 students.
I am a card-carrying liberal democrat, and proud of it. I fully support everything these students are doing. But I also respect truth. And the truth is this group of dedicated and motivated and passionate activists is not 2000 strong. Why would this be a problem for you?
I lived in Dallas for 11 years. I would recommend staying away from the small towns (Vidor, Jasper, et.al.) but the big cities are quite diverse. There are some mighty fine people that reside in D/FW and there are, of course, the local assholes.
That is smucking beautiful!!!
And btw…how do we know if this pic depicts the totality of marchers/activists?? I’m just sayin’…
And we have the audacity to insist on supervising the voting proctices in other countries.
Fucking A guys, keep up the good work.
Now let me take a second to defend Texas, though I’ve never even been there. Bush is from Connecticut, just like Lieberman and Ann Coulter. Let’s keep our facts straight, it separates us from the animals and neocons.
Thats great.
good for all these young people. more people should stand up
to the gop and let them know that the gop is past tense.
Something is in the air. We should all be proud.
This kind of stories just warm my heart and lead me to tears, its so painfully true that THESE students were going to decide the election so they just HAD to be oppressed. Well you showed them, every vote counts, so you take your uninformed self right to that voting booth and vote….
Yes………….The time for change is NOW. GOBAMA!!!
Awesome - what a great statement. I’m beginning to feel proud of my country again.
i’m a texan and i hate W. and so do a helluva lot of other texans. for most of its history, it’s been a democratic state. stories like this give me hope that a sea change is underway and we’re back to blueness!
What an experience for those first time voters!
While watching the video I couldn’t make the connection as to why not enough voting machines impacted early voting. It seems to me if you break out more of your machines during early voting you will need less machines on election day. Have I missed something?
This is the type of action that brings change. Good for them. This is inspiring to all. Ther is still hope.
Awesome! Too bad that the people in charge are such assholes that it has to come to this (are we still in the 1960’s?).
My guess is that if Hillary gets the bid, a lot of young voters like this will feel disenfranchised, and the ensuing voter apathy may really hurt the Democratic party in November. I’ll still turn out to vote, but I can understand why people wouldn’t.
This is the news that makes me proud to live in Texas.
For all the crap Texas gets from people, it’s good to have people see that there are people ready for change here.
After seeing that, “Taking it to the Street” by The Doobie Brothers has been running through my head. Nicely done folks! You are a model for us all.
The 2000 number is the estimate from the local police…they’d have no reason to hype it.
To borrow some ’60’s phrases- Right on!- Power to the people!
Oh, that is brilliant protesting and quite moving and humbling to see. (Someone’s been reading their Saul Alinsky, their MLK,Jr., and their Gandhi. (G)) I’ll take back every bad thought I ever had about Texas (I’m an OU Alumn, my enmity is earned, dammit!) But I admire the hell out of those Prairie View students. And as someone above said, I do hope Obama, and even Hillary publicize this. Heck, this would be a perfect thing for Edwards to highlight(were he still in it). And I hope none of us forget this in Nov., when the general comes around, we may need to resort to these types of tactics in order to ensure that our votes count.
And to the person above who said that it wasn’t 1,000 or 2,000 marchers, please remember, even if there is a vast trail of people behind, even the helicopter crews on the local news don’t show that when it makes the ruling cast look bad. Hundreds of thousands marched after the 2000 vote was granted to Bush. Millions marched and protested BEFORE the Iraq war, but popular news accounts of the time edited out the wide shots, and gave low-ball figures for both events. You either had to be their to notice the differences, or read the foreign press to get a better estimate. Do not ever beleive that corporate media will give you anything that makes regular people look strong.
…doing their parents proud!
did they walk back home after too ;)
kahootz @ 32: