Wednesday, November 05, 2008
Shuttles help get Tech students to polls
Parking issues and long lines were prominent in a student-heavy precinct in Blacksburg.
Justin Cook | The Roanoke Times
Virginia Tech students wait at Cassell Coliseum for a shuttle to take them to polls at St. Michael's Lutheran Church in Blacksburg.
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BLACKSBURG -- All of those college students didn't register to vote just for the heck of it.
Judging from the scene at St. Michael's Lutheran Church on Tuesday, many of the newly registered Virginia Tech students responsible for much of the 47 percent growth in registered voters in Montgomery County's E-1 precinct turned out. The precinct grew to 5,867 registered voters this election season.
A steady stream of vans with Obama's campaign insignia on their doors shuttled students from Cassell Coliseum to the church, and a Blacksburg Transit shuttle busing students from campus came by the church every half-hour.
At 12:30 p.m., about 1,746 people had voted, and a line of cars stretched about half a mile down Merrimac Road. With no other parking options, voters parked alongside the narrow road as traffic crawled by. During midafternoon, the wait time at the precinct was about one hour, according to election officials.
By 7 p.m., when polls across the state were to close, the wait time had grown to two hours. Dozens of voters were in line at the precinct at closing time, and they were shepherded into the sanctuary so election officials could monitor who would be allowed to vote.
The scene was less chaotic at the Radford Recreation Center on Tuesday afternoon, though the turnout was heavier in the morning in the student-heavy precinct, with lines stretching 75 yards outside the door.
Radford University's Student Government Association organized the busing of students from campus to the rec center from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
But as of 3 p.m., no more than 30 students had taken advantage of it. Most students managed to get there on their own.
Radford freshman Chelsea Taylor got there OK but had one last scare before getting to vote in her first election.
She had some difficulty registering in the first place after listing her dorm address as her permanent residence.
But after an initial rejection, she called Radford Registrar Tracy Howard and her name was placed on the list of registered voters.
"He looked back and found my application, and he apologized, and I got to vote," she said. "Sometimes it helps to go straight to the source."
But when Taylor got to the polls, the woman behind the sign-in table couldn't find her name.
"She's like, 'I got an add-on sheet and you're not on my add-on sheet,' " Taylor said. "My heart just starts thumping."
Then, written in pencil behind all the names that begin with "Z," the woman found Taylor's name, and she was allowed to vote.
The scare harked back to a conflict between students and registrars in Montgomery County and Radford this fall that received the attention of voting and civil rights groups as well as the national media.
The controversy prompted Rock the Vote to visit Tech's campus in September.
A Washington, D.C.-based nonpartisan organization formed to encourage young people to vote, its volunteers were at St. Michael's on Tuesday to provide voting rights information and advocate for anyone who felt their right to vote was threatened.
The group also erected a large "Vote Here" sign at the corner of Prices Fork and Merrimac roads directing voters to the church.
"If they weren't here, nobody would know where to turn," Tech student Angie De Soto said. "I'm a fifth-year senior, and I had no idea where this place was."
But students found it, with several of them among the first to vote, lining up at the very un-studentlike time of 6 a.m., De Soto said.
At 12:30 p.m., Montgomery County began running a school bus to the church to address the parking and traffic problems. Buses took voters from nearby Kipps Elementary School, a polling area with ample parking, to the church.
greg.esposito@roanoke.com 381-1675
tim.thornton@roanoke.com 381-1669
