Recapping Purdue’s voting location controversy

Despite years of precedent, Purdue will break the tradition of offering an Election Day voting location on campus; not entirely of choice but a reported inability to do so. Despite this, it still managed to host a 6-hour voting location at the CoRec on a Thursday, in the midst of ongoing classes throughout the campus.

The inability to host

In a story published by the Purdue Exponent on Sept. 12, it was revealed that Purdue would be unable to host a voting location on campus due to allegedly violating election laws.

The county reportedly met with PurdueVotes, a campus-wide committee that works to increase student voting rates, but was unable to find "a facility on campus that would meet statutory requirements," said Mike Smith, a member of the county voter registration board for over 40 years.

Mike Smith, Tippecanoe County Election Board staffer told the Exponent that Purdue had allegedly violated election-related laws in the past and have been difficult to work with.

The university's spokesperson responded saying, "(it) does not determine voting locations," but Smith found their response lacked important context.

"That's true, (Purdue) does not pick the locations," he said. "But we requested a location and were not given a workable option."

The qualifications that Purdue has reportedly had issues with in the past, Smith said, are parking accessibility, Purdue Police ticketing poll workers and stopping the loading and unloading of polling machines and "Purdue personnel" removing candidate signs.

Smith also said that PUPD has allegedly been present inside of voting locations in the past, which is against Indiana law.

Purdue Police Capt. Kang said he did not recall a time PUPD has interfered with the loading and unloading of voting materials.

Calls for change

After the Exponent's article was published, calls for a voting location echoed out across both campus and the state itself.

Purdue Student Government voted unanimously in favor of Senate Document 24-03, a document calling on the university to uphold its civic values.

"Public institutions are intended to educate citizens. Toward that end, Purdue University has long-supported civic engagement," the document said. "The most important aspect of citizenry is the casting of a ballot. Denying students, faculty and staff access to adequate voting facilities on a national Election Day is in direct opposition to these goals."

PSG President Jason Packard said he thought it was important to "put out a statement from us that we want on-campus voting on Election Day."

The University Senate passed the document Oct. 21.

But campus groups weren't the only ones calling on Purdue: state party leaders and candidates also called on Purdue to adopt a location.

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jennifer McCormick told the Exponent that it was a shame the university did not, at the time, have an on-campus voting location. McCormick, a Purdue alum, visited the campus in September for a campaign event.

"Everybody that I've talked to is first of all shocked that there is none here, and kind of appalled by it," said Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jennifer McCormick in an interview with the Exponent. "There absolutely should be access here and there should be the ease of access on campus."

"Let me first say that I would encourage Purdue to host a polling location," said Libertarian Gubernatorial candidate Donald Rainwater. "I believe that voting is very important. I believe that we should encourage everyone who is eligible to vote to vote. I believe that we should make it as convenient as possible, while making sure that it is also secure."

"(I) don't know much about the context, all I can tell you is you should err on the side of making it easy, not hard," said Senator Mike Braun.

The Democratic party eventually came down to the university and called on Purdue to have on-campus voting.

"The Indiana Democratic Party urges Purdue, PurdueVotes, and the Tippecanoe County Election Board to find a resolution to this issue," said Indiana Democratic Party Chair Mike Schmuhl in the press release. "As one of our country's best universities, every student, regardless of party, at Purdue who is legally registered to vote should be able to make their voice heard in this important election."

CoRec approved

The election board met Sept. 27 to discuss the adoption of making the CoRec an early voting location on Oct. 24, a decision that eventually came to fruition.

Still, community members and officials said that measures weren't taken adequately, especially since the university still did not have promises towards an on-campus voting location on Election Day.

The university reportedly submitted a petition to the county to establish an Election Day voting location, but the offer was not brought up at the meeting.

Mike Smith, the election board staffer who accused the university of election-related crimes, said the petition was in his inbox by Thursday, according to local reporter Dave Bangert, but he didn't find it in his inbox until after Friday's meeting.

Smith, who previously said that Purdue also had problems with Wi-Fi connection and accessible parking, said both problems have been resolved but did not reference the university's alleged election-related crimes.

Tippecanoe County councilor Lisa Dullum said she was disappointed that there weren't plans for Election Day voting on campus.

"I remember in 2018, lines were going out the door at the union, while we still had voting going on at Margerum," she said. "So I'm still very, very concerned about the lines on Election Day."

Susan Schechter, a member of the Fairfield Township Trustee's Office, said the lack of on-campus voting options "reeks of voter suppression" during public comments at Friday's Tippecanoe County Board of Elections meeting.

Schecter's sentiment wasn't a foreign one in the CoRec voting lines that would come Oct. 24.

Early voting at the CoRec

The CoRec opened its doors for voting on a Thursday at 10 a.m. With classes going on across campus, a line wrapped around one side of the building and stayed that way throughout the day.

The location was open for six hours, classes still going as it closed its doors.
In the line, students and members of Purdue's community weren't shy about the fact that this would be the only day they could vote on their campus.

Tucker Ricks, a freshman in the Polytechnic Institute, said he disliked the inaccessibility.

"People in college towns usually don't have transportation," Ricks said. "So it's just kind of gatekeeping them."

Noah Cain, a sophomore in the Polytechnic Institute, said he knew Purdue had issues setting up the location, but still wished there were more accessible options.
"It would have been really convenient if they had just used the PMU," he said. "It was kind of unfortunate they didn't have more places."

Purdue lab technician, Jellie Snyder, said they disliked the lack of available voting locations on campus because of how it could impact the turnout of young voters.

"It's obviously completely unfair," Snyder said. "It completely skews the bias in favor of older voters who might be voting differently than younger voters."

Purdue will not have an on-campus voting location on Nov. 5.

Additional reporting by Ava Burns, Liv Helmuth and Quint Holguin, staff reporters