By Jamil Oakford and Jeremy Moore
TCC’s campuses will experience an influx of visitors as they gear up for the early voting season.
Starting Feb. 16, SE Campus will function as a polling place for early voting in the presidential primary. NE, NW and South will all open their doors to early voters Feb. 22.
“Typically, we use college campuses for easing some of the pressure off of other local polling sites,” Tarrant County Elections Office early voting coordinator Yolanda Ramirez said.
South, NW and NE will serve as temporary early voting sites, a role not uncommon for any of the campuses. In the March 2014 primary election, the campuses greeted at least a hundred people at each site.
SE is set up as a primary early voting location instead of the others for a couple of reasons.
“It all stemmed back to the South location in Arlington,” Ramirez said.
After the former location in south Arlington couldn’t give up the room for a polling place, the Tarrant County Elections Office was left to look for another site.
Because of the overwhelming response of voters to SE Campus, the Elections Commission asked SE to be a full early voting site.
“There aren’t many facilities that can house a voting location,” Ramirez said. “They’d have to give up a room in their building for two weeks, and not everyone can accommodate that.”
Ramirez pointed out that the reason the other three campuses will be temporary polling sites has to do with the equipment.
“We don’t have enough equipment to have two-week polling locations at all three of those campuses,” she said.
SE assistant to the president Michael Cinatl believes this new schedule will be beneficial.
“People are more likely to vote when they have more options in terms of days and times than when they must do it on one day,” he said.
Anyone near SE, South, NE or NW has the option of voting on campus those days, regardless of their precinct.
For TR and NE student Autumn Abilez, having a campus as a polling location is good.
“Instead of having to go to just that one place, there are options,” she said. “That’d make it easier to vote for me.”
TCC Voting Locations
SE Campus EMBC
(portable building):
Feb. 16-198 a.m.-5 p.m.
Feb. 207 a.m.-7 p.m.
Feb. 2111 a.m.-4 p.m.
Feb. 22-267 a.m.-7 p.m.
NE Campus NSTU 1506,
NW Campus WTLO
Theater Lobby
South Campus Faculty
Dining Hall (SSTU 1112):
Feb. 22-257 a.m.-7 p.m.
