David Christie ’10 presented the resolution — a joint venture betwen the College Democrats, College Republicans and P-Votes — at the meeting and explained that “basically what we’re trying to do is get more students to vote.”
“For 91.8 percent [of eligible voters] it would be more convenient to vote on campus,” he said.
Christie presented 2007 statistics provided by the Princeton Borough Clerk showing that the Borough’s District 1 was composed of about 92 percent students, 4 percent University-affiliated voters and 4 percent non-University voters. The numbers include those students who graduated in 2008 and do not count current freshmen, he added.
District 1 includes Lauritzen Hall and all of Wilson College on its southern edge. It is bordered on the north by Nassau Street and the west by Alexander Street. It stretches past Washington Road on the east, including parts of the Center for Jewish Life and Campus Club.
“Moving [the polling place] to an on-campus location actually moves it closer to the geographic center [of District 1],” Christie said. The current polling location is Trinity Church on Mercer Street, “a part of town no Princeton student would conceivably go to, except maybe to vote,” he explained.
The first step toward changing the voting location is providing the Borough Clerk with a written proposal, Christie explained. He added that the clerk has “voiced nominal support.” The clerk would then present the proposal to the Borough Council, and if approved, the resolution would move to the County Board of Elections.
“Unfortunately, this is not going to happen for 2008,” Christie said, because of the multiple steps involved in the process.
The two most likely sites for the new polling location are Richardson Auditorium and Chancellor Green. These locations are optimal because of parking availability and handicapped access. In the case of Chancellor Green, “residents don’t have to come too far onto campus,” Christie said.
Christie added that other universities such as Harvard, MIT, Yale and Rutgers all have on-campus or otherwise convenient polling locations.
“Encouraging people to vote is not a Republican or Democratic issue. It’s an American issue,” Andrew Malcolm ’09, president of the College Republicans and USG communications director, said at the meeting.
Another topic addressed at Sunday night’s meeting was the freshman class election. Today, the preliminary results will be verified by the registrar and released. Depending on the preliminary results, runoffs will be scheduled to begin Tuesday, senior elections manager Braeden Kepner-Kraus ’10 said.
Kepner-Kraus explained that there were some technical glitches and fairness concerns regarding the freshman elections process.
“We had some technical difficulties leading up to the election ... so we had to start elections two hours late, and they ran two hours later than scheduled,” he said.
Kepner-Kraus added that “we’ve had a few elections complaints ... one [of which] is troublesome.”
Christopher Harding ’12, a candidate for freshman class president, “apparently sent a large unsolicited e-mail to the freshman class. ... He sent two, although he claims his friend sent one of them. We are currently investigating that,” Kepner-Kraus said.
The USG also mentioned continuing its efforts to extend library hours and discussed concerns raised after the release of its Committee on Background and Opportunity (COMBO) survey. More information on the USG’s reaction to the COMBO survey can be found in a separate article in today’s paper.
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