CoRec approved as on-campus early voting site, still no Election Day location

Students will be able to vote early at the CoRec this election cycle after the county’s election board voted Friday to approve the spot, but Purdue’s campus will still go without an Election Day voting location.

The university had 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, a staff member with the Election Board who coordinates voting sites, said the petition was in his inbox by Thursday, according to local reporter Dave Bangert, but Smith said he didn’t find it in his inbox until after Friday’s meeting.

Randall Vonderheide, chairman of the board, told the Exponent after the meeting that as of now, the board is not planning to add an Election Day voting location on campus.

Although there won't be an Election Day site, the board, alongside Purdue, worked to establish an on-campus early polling site that would meet the qualifications required by the state, the university said in a statement.

The early voting locations near campus will be the University Methodist Church, which will be open for four hours, and now the CoRec, which will be open for six hours.

But even though there will now be an early voting location on campus, many community members and officials said the measures taken weren’t adequate, especially without an on-campus voting location on Election Day itself.

The board’s Friday vote comes a day after the Indiana Democratic Party publicly called on Purdue and the county to add an on-campus voting site on Election Day, saying an early voting location only at the CoRec is “not enough.”

Over the last four presidential election cycles, on-campus voting locations have comprised no less than half of the total vote in West Lafayette, according to election board data given to the Exponent.

While the election board has shifted blame onto the university, Democratic leaders have called the lack of accessibility “voter suppression.”

“Primarily, we are heartened … (by) the addition of an early voting site,” said Indiana Democratic Party Chairman Mike Schmuhl. “That will be an early voting site for a few hours on Oct. 24, but at the end of the day, we also think that that's inadequate.”

In the past, Purdue has had problems with Wi-Fi connection and accessible parking, Smith Said.

But at the meeting, he said both problems have been resolved.
“Purdue has brought in Wintek, and Wintek is going to manage the (Wi-Fi) situation for us,” Smith said. “They've also fixed the parking problem … Purdue is clearing a lot for us.”

Originally, Smith told the Exponent there were issues with Purdue police ticketing poll workers, stopping the loading and unloading of polling machines and “Purdue personnel” removing candidate signs.

The reported issues were not brought up at the meeting.

Tippecanoe County Councilor Lisa Dullum said she was disappointed that there won’t be 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.”

But Smith said he thinks Margerum alone will be enough to accommodate all “3,058” people who will be expected to cast their vote on Election Day.

“I've seen the data. You're talking about the students. It's not just the students who vote at Purdue. The staff vote at Purdue. The faculty vote at Purdue. I vote at Purdue because it's close to me and I walk down there,” Dullum said. “So I'm just really disappointed.”

Julie Roush, secretary of the board, said they chose Margerum as a location because it would cater to the students who live in private, off-campus housing.

“A Purdue student told us that there's a path from the majority of the student housing that goes that way,” Roush said.

Another community member, Susan Schechter, asked Smith during the meeting the difference in the number of people who voted early compared to those who did on Election Day.

He said it was three-to-one, with more people voting on Election Day.

“Voter suppression, clear and simple,” Schechter said.

Editor's Note
The article has been changed to reflect new information.