CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi media-production major Tomás Whitmarsh missed his morning class recently to participate in the first day of early voting in his hometown of Lake Jackson.
“I wanted to make sure that I got done as soon as possible, you know," he said. "That way I wouldn’t have to take time off or something like that to just to, like, rush when everyone else is going to be there all at the same day at once.”
Amid juggling lectures and assignments, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi college students are eager to participate in early voting.
But some just need to figure out how to get to the on-campus polling location.
There are a number of signs around campus "pointing" in the direction of the voting spot located in the Carlos Truan Natural Resources Center (NRC), as you can see in the video below:
The only problem is, the signs are few and far between, and the NRC is a pretty far hike from buildings most students know well, such as the O’Connor Building, where several classes are held, or the University Center.
University officials agree that those locations were easier to find, but lacked easily accessible parking and could pose a problem for electioneering laws that prevent students from wearing certain T-shirts, hats and buttons while participating in regular activities on campus.
Student Ashanti Ortiz works at the circulation desk of the Mary and Jeff Bell Library.
She said she's had to redirect a number of students who mistakenly think the library is the polling location, since one sign points directly to it.
“I say that the easiest way is to go through the Seahorse Parking Lot because it is like directly across from there, but I do know the signs are confusing and they are kind of just pointed all around on campus,” she said.
To make getting to the voting location a little bit easier for students, the Dean of Student's Office and Student Government Association are providing golf-cart rides to the Natural Resources Center.
"It was something that the students said 'yes' to and ran with the idea," said Assoc. VP of Student Support and Dean of Students Lisa Perez. "And so they've been publicizing it and working with it with other students to also volunteer."
Can out-of-town students vote in Nueces County?
Unlike most voters, biomedical science majors Cally Bocanegra and Alexis Richardson made an extra effort to ensure their voice is heard this election season.
Bocanegra is from Dallas, and Richardson is from San Antonio, so they both had to update their voter registrations to participate Nueces County elections.
They said they checked that off their to-do lists a long time ago, when organizations helped out-of-town students register to vote around campus.
“It was easy, we had a couple of organizations help people push for registration for voting and stuff like that,” Richardson said.
However, students who are not registered in Nueces County are still finding their way to the ballot box, according to NRC poll worker Brian Wilson.
He explained to 3NEWS what these voters do.
"We’ve been getting a lot of students," he said. "A lot of them haven’t registered in Nueces county. They’re registered in their home, you know up in Dallas or whatever, so then they can file, as long as they're registered, they can get a limited ballot and vote on the national level. They can’t vote on anything -- mayors or anything like that around here -- because they are not in the Nueces county.”
Whitmarsh, the Lake Jackson native, said he felt the need to go back home to cast his vote because of how his parents raised him.
“From my family’s perspective, we kind of go to do your duty, to go out there and vote for whoever comes next,” he said. “And I’ve always got this thing in the back of my mind that 'Well, if I don’t vote I can’t complain about the outcome.' ”
Computer-science major Alex Vasquez was promoting the Islander Cyber Society student organization in the breezeway near the library when 3NEWS stopped to talk to him.
He, too, turned in his ballot on the first day of early voting, but he didn’t have to travel far, voting at the on-campus polling location in the NRC.
“In my opinion, it is your civic duty," he said. "It’s the bare minimum. You should be involved. It’s one of the ways you have a voice of what happens in your country.”
