Over 17,000 people voted at the Texas Union and 7,744 at the LBJ School of Public Affairs in the Nov. 5 election, according to an unofficial count by the Travis County Clerk’s Office.
This is the first year Travis County residents voted at the Union after the University moved its primary polling location from the Flawn Academic Center, a switch many thought would decrease voter turnout.
“We didn’t think this was a decision made out of malice,” University Democrats President Brian Peña said. “But we do think it was a genuine oversight to not widely notify folks … about this change.”
Peña said many students faced issues voting at the Union, including confusion about where the exact polling location was.
“One of our problems was we were finding a lot of folks lost on the fourth floor of the Union, looking for the polling place,” Peña said. “We would send a lot of folks in to vote and tell them to go to the Union, and they’d come back out looking confused.”
Advertising freshman Julia Harfenist, who voted early at the Union, said voting at the FAC would have been more convenient.
“It’s a little more open and has less stuff than the Union,” Harfenist said. “I think that directionally, the Union is a little bit confusing, and there are also just a lot of people everywhere.”
Student organizations dedicated to voter mobilization are hopeful that the change in location did not stop students from voting.
“In 2020, UT had an impressive 75.8% student voting rate, compared to a 66% national average,” a spokesperson from TX Votes, a nonpartisan voting organization on campus, said in an email to the Texan. “We’re hopeful we’ll meet or even exceed that 75.8% rate when the full (2024 election turnout) report is released in a few years.”
The Texan also reached out to Turning Point USA, a conservative organization on campus, but did not receive a response.
About 10,000 fewer people voted at the LBJ School, the second on-campus polling place located on the opposite side of campus, than at the Union.
“The LBJ school, being less centrally located, saw shorter lines but wasn’t as well known to students, which posed a bit of a challenge,” the TX Votes spokesperson said.
Questions remain about future elections at the University.
“We’re a campus of 50,000 students … we’re a small city,” Peña said. “In order to accommodate a small city, voting-wise, we need more polling places.”
