Prairie View A&M Students March To Vote

(Via The Field) Founded in 1876, Prairie View A&M is a historically black university in Prairie View, Texas. The school is home to about eight thousand students, who study in a range of fields - most notably engineering, nursing and agriculture - and they have a famous marching band called the Marching Storm (which, as you'll soon see, is pretty appropriate).

As you might suspect, the student body represents a large constituency of Democratic party voters, and, that being the case, they don't have it easy. Texas Republicans, who run the electoral show, have historically gone out of their way to stymie Democratic voters. The whole state was gerrymandered out the yin-yang (if you recall, back in 2003, statehouse Democrats were forced to flee to Oklahoma in a futile attempt to block the GOP's redistricting plan) back in 2003.

For the students of Prairie View, the Republicans in the state located their "early-polling place more than seven miles from the school." As it turned out, this was just a minor inconvenience to a student body well-taught by their own Marching Storm.

And, that, I believe, is what democracy looks like.

Comments

[fredamae]

I Love that our kids are "getting involved".­..to all of you young adults out there who have marched are marching and will march...TH­ANK YOU and God Bless!!!!!!!

(btw: i am old enough to be your grand-parent)

[bellecloche]

This is what democracy looks like. I hope ALL the candidates highlight this issue.

[ScandalousCandice]

This is pretty awesome. Being an Obama supporter this is a great thing to see. But I will say even if this was a march from Clinton supporters it's still pretty prideful.

Though they should be marching to U2's Pride In the name of Love. That would be pretty awesome.

[shm259]

Also as an Obama supporter- AMAZING!!!!

[MRb1000]

It is a shame you can vote in Texas in a supermarket, but you cannot vote on a college campus. What is wrong with America!!

Texas A&M getter done

America we need to fix this in all states!!!! Voting is a right!!!!

[Zhonni]

You do have a point about being able to vote on campuses. I certainly would like that.

[seattledres]

Go Prairie View A& M!! I wonder if there could be a law enacted that said in Federal races there must be some criteria met for voting. I know that each individual state and district can be as backward, racist, anti-democratic, Stalinesque, Rovian, piss-ant as they want, but in Fedral elections couldn't there be a standard? Does it take away from the states' rights crowd to say that in a Federal election that the populace should be equally represented in access to voting machines with a paper trail by miles traveled, demographics, etc.? In '04 the people in Ohio had to wait in lines for hours due to lack of voting machines while the whiter district next door had to wait until their latte cooled to a drinkable temperature (I had to get a coffee reference in - but please boycott *bucks until the Sonics are ensured to stay in Seattle).

[chronic5]

These students set a great example. There are more videos of this event (at uTube) with students explaining what is going on. I really admire these people and thank them for this spirited and meaningful march.

[BOfever]

Republican students are smarter, they drive a car to vote, then they go home and save themselves 2 hours of waster time.

[SmootyBooty]

Good Lord you're an idiot...

[estevancarlos]

I don't have a car. I guess I'm not republican.

[slow2]

BOfever:

Typical arrogant GOP response; not every student has a car, or can afford the GOP/Halliburton gasoline costs to drive a car.

AND, jerks like you are obviously not concerned with carbon emissions. Many students are physically able to walk.

Why don't you just stay home? McCain will lose anyway.

[tbone99]

Every Repug college student with a daddy in oil has to have an SUV. Its commanded in the Bible - go forth and multiply- ( mah dividends)

[razberryberet]

BOfever, I think the whole idea was to make a statement.­..and yes, I think they did. Beautiful!

[orbital]

*LOL*

Yeah, but the Dem students have WAY more fun.

Smarter? I don't think so. Especially if they voted for Bush twice.

[estevancarlos]

"Who you votin' for?"

"O-Ba-ma!"

[2belinda]

WOW! now that is impressive. A lot of folks fought (and died) for the right to vote. I am glad to see students exercising that right.

[01202009]

Every time I hear the name Tom Delay my stomach clinches. Next to Karl Rove he most deserves to be in jail (or hell) for his underhanded, dirty tricks. These are not Americans. They are criminal fascists using God as their excuse! Look what they've done to our country!

[OnePartyEqualsTyranny]

Agree. Christians will be a black stain for years to come because they still support and keep them in power.

[DennyCrane]

I doubt you'd ever see supporters of Hillary go to such lengths to vote for her.

[tbone99]

How do you know who they're voting for?

[detriangulation]

ummmm...be­cause they were asking each other and responding "O-Ba-Ma", that's why.

[GeoLee]

Then the next question is would these young people have exercised their right to vote if Obama had not been in the race or if he had been a different race? In the past did these young people of voting age stand up to Delay's tactics just because of the inequities of them or did it take a black candidate to get them to take a stand...I would hope they came out in equivalent numbers to cast a vote when there was not black running because that would be a far more convincing statement that would keep the race issue out of the picture and the voting rights picture forefront. That is the courage their parents, grandparents, great grandparents and the generations before took and, yes, even died for.

[bluestatelib]

The Prairie View A&M University students have marched before to protect their voting rights. Consider:

"Most recently, in 2004, an estimated 5,000 students marched seven miles from campus to the Waller Country Courthouse to demand the right to vote without intimation, and to ask the State of Texas to intervene in the matter. In the 2006 election, hundreds of newly registered students were turned away from the polls and forced to vote with provisional ballots because their names were never added to the Waller County voter registration rolls."

Edrea Davis

February 13, 2008

United States Student Association

[peascott]

Listen to the video, the did this in 2004.

[GeoLee]

Continued: I hope, however, this message from prairie A&M is heard on high in Washington as I am most concerned about how the Republican Party in general is targeting minorities and low income voters all ove rthe country by a planned effort to cut down the number of polling places causig the less able to travel longer distances even in the urban areas of states where the secretaries of states are republican. In our own state the effort has cut the polling poaces inthe lartgets city by 2/3rds and the low income and blacks and hispanics have several miles further to travel than the more affluent urban and many of the polls are now placed in the most conservative churches rather than in the public schools that have all been made handicapped accessible. But then, our state had Katherine Harris come and tell the local rebuplican electiosn commissioners how to suppress voters...t­hat is one reason I don't think Obama will carry one state where he won the caucus. There ought ot be a law suit, but getting to this Supreme Court would be falling on deaf ears anyway, I guess. And in answer to a question in the blog, why would I not think the students in general support Obama...af­ter all he is getting 90& of the black vote everywhere else, isn't he? The statistics of that assumption are pretty ovbious this year.

[clumberfeet]

They need music...

http://www.veoh.com/videos/e1131685gpf3GfW

[tbone99]

Fleetwood Mac?

[JulieSA]

This story about Prairie View is pretty cool, but I can see another side to the story. My parents were very politically active Democrats. They encouraged me to vote, but they wouldn't allow me to register to vote in my small college town. They thought it was wrong for a bunch of students who were only living there for four years to make policy for a town in which they had no long term interest.

Back then it was much harder to vote absentee. I drove a six-hour roundtrip and skipped all my classes one election day just so I could go home to vote. Now, it's ridiculously easy to vote early, so these kids could be voting at home.

[maxcat06]

What if their home was Michigan?

[JulieSA]

There's this thing called absentee voting.

[preatorius]

Yikes,
They are only walking to vote, and to protest the fact that their polling place is 7 miles away.

Maybe they live in Texas, but they don't have a car, and can't make the eight-hour bus ride across Texas to vote.

Have you ever been to texas? It takes 6 months to walk across the street.

[JulieSA]

I live in Texas.

[BOfever]

I wonder if any of them can name a Obama accomplishment . . . we know their state senator couldn't.

[sheraz]

That line has become as boring a talking point as using his middle name.

[OnePartyEqualsTyranny]

Cut him a break, he’ll be walking down the aisle again tomorrow asking jesus to be saved.

[greenpaz]

Obama has a lot of accomplishments. The problem is, nobody knows what senators do. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein are my state's U.S. senators. I support them. And can I name a single legislative accomplishment of either of them? Of course not. And I consider myself to be a bit of a political junkie. How many McCain accomplishments can anybody on this message board name? There's McCain-Feingold, which we know because it got tons of press, but what else has he done (I mean, beside the amorphous "he's a strong supporter of the military"). Knowing a senator's legislative accomplishments is hardly a requirement for supporting them.

[BOfever]

Boxer, you mean the same person that keeps voting to block the USA for drilling for their own oil?

[GeoLee]

Well, if you watched Bill Moyers or NOW (don't remeber which one...Frid­ay nights PBS all blends together) this week you would find how difficult it is to track the earmarks that are inserted in bills, so who really knows what a candidate "accomplished" during each term...the­y do a pretty good job of hiding them so the opponents can't use the earmark issue against them.

[vitasackvillewesttexas]

nor was tubbs asked any specific accomplishments of hillary - but boy, naming those libraries sure is special!

[tbone99]

Well - it looks like he's accomplished one thing anyway -getting them out to vote.

[JulieSA]

"Texas Republicans, who run the electoral show, have historically gone out of their way to stymie Democratic voters."

Oh please. Depends on what you mean by "history". I was raised in the Texas Democratic party. We were all Dems back then because a Republican couldn't get elected, and the Democratic bosses in South Texas were very powerful (Box 13, Duke of Duval). From Reconstruction until 1979, all Texas governors were Democrats. I rarely saw Republicans with any political power until I until I graduated from college.

[01202009]

Yes, Julie, and then what happened and why?

[JulieSA]

The Democrats went Left. My parents were delegates at the '68 convention. Their hotel was attacked by the lefties. That was the beginning of the end, though it took another decade or so before they could bring themselves to voting Republican and admitting it. Jimmy Carter was the last straw, on the national level, although we still voted Dem for governor up until 1996.