Winning the support of voters ages 18-29 significantly affected the presidential election this year. According to the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE), young voters, representing 18 percent of the total voter tally, overwhelmingly preferred Barack Obama, winning him 66 percent of the under-30 vote. “I think that it was amazing, the number of people who early voted. Especially the number from Guilford College,” said senior Tory Mallett, who spent Nov. 1 bussing students to the polls. “But since (college dorms) don’t come up as real addresses in the computers, it disenfranchises students, purposely or unintentionally.”
On the last day of early voting, some students voting at Leonard Recreation Center discovered that poll workers wrongfully required a letterhead document accessed directly from campus life. This fill-in-the-blank form shows where students live on campus, their name, and has Residential Living Coordinator Kris Gray’s signature.
Simultaneously, other students were correctly informed by campaign officials that printing off the “my housing” form on Bannerweb would suffice as proof of residency for one-stop early voting.
“Some students were able to get through with the first form (from Bannerweb),” said Mallett. “Others were turned away and told they needed the second.”
First-year Mecah Miller was one of several Guilford students initially turned away from one-stop early voting after being told she brought the wrong proof of residency form.
“I waited in line for three hours before they put me back,” said Miller. “In any other election I would have left. But I wanted to vote so bad that I stayed the extra hour for someone to go back and get a sheet that had less information than the first sheet.”
Junior Casey Blake worked the polls at Leonard Recreation Center where many Guilford students voted early.
“The vast majority of people having trouble registering or showing proof of address were college students,” said Blake. “We were told in training there was a specific form that has to show where you physically sleep. We were told print-outs were not acceptable. It had to be a specific letterhead document as proof of residency from residence life.”
After spending the day bussing people to the polls and hearing complaints from Guilford students, Mallet took action.
“I called our legal team in Raleigh, who called the state Board of Elections, who told us we were right. They said they would notify the election officials at Leonard Recreation Center.”
After Mallett clarified the residency form misunderstanding, two election officials illegally asked sophomore Alex Knox for proof of residency, even though he registered in September and they saw him in the computer system.
“They started accusing me of being lazy and not having my things together on time. They said ‘if you go about your life waiting to do things at the last minute you’re never going to get anywhere,'” Knox said. “I could tell they were not happy with the situation in general. Something about me being a college student-they were against it.”
With voting card in hand, Knox stepped out of line and filled out the residence life form originally required by poll workers for one-stop early voting.
“Once I had that completed, I sat back down with the same two people. They didn’t like it,” said Knox. “They didn’t consider it an official form and said it didn’t come from a secure website. They started to get annoyed with me and the Guilford student group.”
An election official began verbally attacking Mallett.
“The man yelled at me, saying it was too easy, that this should not be used as proof of residency,” said Mallett. “He was screaming in front of an entire line of voters and other poll workers. It was unprofessional and completely inappropriate. I was intimidated and offended.”
Mallett eventually defused the situation. At 5:30 pm, on the final day of early voting, Alex Knox was one of the last Guilford County residents to cast his ballot.
“This is an issue that needs to be addressed before the next election,” said Mallett. “We don’t need to give students another reason not to vote. They already show up in such small numbers.