Senator Barack Obama’s run for president has sparked young people all over the country to not only register, but to actually get to the polls and vote. This story from Texas reveals just how committed the new voters are to exercising their rights.
Post from Sam Graham-Felsen's Blog: A remarkably inspiring story out of Texas...
“Hundreds of students at Prairie View A&M University, a historically Black college and university (HBCU), on Tuesday began rallying for their right to vote. They say a decision to eliminate all but one early voting location in Waller County makes it hard for students to cast ballots. The marchers, in black shirts with the slogan “It is 2008 and we will vote,” carried signs and demanded changes in how elections are run in the rural county about 40 miles outside of Houston. Police estimated that the crowd topped 2,000 as the marchers paraded from the Prairie View A&M campus seven miles to the Waller County Courthouse in Hempstead.
It was just last week, after U.S. Justice Department officials got involved, that Waller County authorities added three temporary polling places for early voting. Still, those locations do not open until Friday, while early voting has been going since Tuesday.
Voters rights have long been a sore subject in Waller County. The county has been embroiled in a number of lawsuits for more than two decades and the Texas Attorney General’s Office is still investigating how the county conducts elections after complaints by local Black leaders.”
If Senator Hillary Clinton thought that Texas would be an easy victory, she had better open her eyes. While she and Senator John McCain were speaking to their small groups of supporters Tuesday, Senator Obama was speaking to over 19,000 in Houston followed up by a rally in Dallas with a crowd of 17,000 in side Reunion Arena which overflowed outside. The Dallas rally started at 12 noon. Some of the attendees reportedly were in line at 6am.
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