10 Comments

This appears to be an attempt at voter suppression. Purdue has previously been able to provide polling places, but this year only started trying to find a solution after facing pushback from people in the community. Now they complain about how tough it is to find a place, despite the fact that this election is more consequential than most, and there have been attempts to suppress the vote in GOP-led states all over the country. My hope is that students and staff from Purdue do anything they can to fight the attempts of the few to silence the voice of the many.

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Before Dobbs, red states nibbled away at abortion rights by forcing clinics to comply with bogus "safety" requirements (hallway width, etc). Today, red states are nibbling away at voting rights by forcing elections officials to comply with bogus "election security" requirements (parking, no machine reuse, etc). I do not think it is "apparent" voter suppression anymore. Plainly, it is anti-democratic as well as anti-Democratic. If rightwing zealots want to call it "truing the vote," fine, but that is not what they are actually after. Big flags and obnoxious RVs cannot hide the tiny men working Oz.

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It might not be Purdue but rather the state laws that require among other things, parking. There simply isn’t public parking on campus. And if they exempt a lot or two from parking permits for Election Day, students will just park there to be closer to campus.

I don’t know if City Hall is the best solution but it is near parking that makes that center available to everyone.

I remember voting there in 2004 and having to walk there from Campus on crutches. It wasn’t great but it was fine. Surely students already walking blocks a day can add an additional 6 block round trip.

The bigger issue will be the time and if they have time in their schedule. I stood in line for 2 hours in 2004, and missed a class. I hope professors are understanding and give allowances for missing classes.

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Sep 20·edited Sep 20

Purdue has unfortunately become a fully owned subsidiary of Indiana's Republican Party, Republican Legislature and Republican Governor who appointed Republican Purdue Trustees. Republican Mitch Daniels still wields way too much influence at Purdue. Mitch was even successful in getting Purdue's very own Republican State Senator gerrymandered in and elected - Spencer Deering. Is it any wonder that Purdue would now dabble in Republican suppression of the student vote? None of it smells good. Where are the Republican voices clambering for civic education and engagement of students now? Where are the university sponsored voter registration drives? C'mon President Chang do the right thing. Make space for the vote on election day.

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Purdue had a Vote Center every year Daniels was President. If Daniels wanted to suppress the vote, eh would have kicked them off campus the moment he took over from Purdue.

The Republicans creating new rules might be the problem, but that certainly isn’t Daniels fault.

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Purdue continually waits until there is blowback from the community at large to do anything about issues. First the Citybus agreement, now this. I’m so tired of them not working with community partners until the last minute and then making it seem like they’re the heroes in this game. They’re NOT the heroes.

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It really is long overdue for Purdue to give a coherent explanation of why this hasn't been a priority for the university, and what is different this year as opposed to past presidential election years. Their stonewalling silence and vague references to regulatory issues is clearly evasive. What is their deal?

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This seems remarkable to me that our county can’t / didn’t set up a voting place on campus on Election Day. It’s been done in the past - why is this year different? I surely hope the reason isn’t to suppress turnout.

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It is incoherent for Purdue to both celebrate our system of governance by the people (civics requirement) and fail to enable its exercise. It should have a dedicated facility that accommodates any "election security" hoops the statehouse devises.

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Purdue has provided polling places in the past. Is the parking issue a new State law?

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