A federal judge ruled Thursday that Waller County did not discriminate against student voters at Prairie View A&M University during the 2018 general election when it granted them fewer days and hours for early voting. TXlege
The fight over student voting rights on the historically Black campus, built on a former plantation, stretches across decades and generations of students., our daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on the most essential Texas news.
Prairie View A&M students have long looked to the courts and the federal government for help. But in the current case, Eskridge — an appointee of former President Donald Trump — sided with county officials who argued the decisions of 2018 were being painted with too broad a brush based on a history in which current leaders say they played no part.
The legal fight emerged in the fall of 2018 when students realized the county’s early voting schedule left Prairie View residents with far fewer days and hours for voting than other population centers in the county, and zero opportunity to vote in the city during the first half of the early voting period.
Students sued days later, asking a federal judge to order the county to set up an early voting site on campus that would offer weekend hours. This prompted an emergency meeting in which the commissioners court instead voted to extend hours on the three days an on-campus location was previously scheduled to host voting during the second week of early voting.
In their testimony, various Prairie View A&M students decried what they described as a demarcation by the county between students and the rest of Waller County’s residents, saying students are often denied the status of a full constituency and standing as an equal part of the community. He also wrote that the initial early voting plan was adopted following normal procedures, including a joint agreement by the local party chairs. The county previously explained that the local chair of the Democratic Party had asked to push early voting at Prairie View to the second week of the early voting period, noting concerns that voting would conflict with homecoming events.
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