This story was originally published by Based in Lafayette.
By Dave Bangert
Based in Lafayette
October 25, 2024
A line of voters more than 100 deep greeted the opening of an early voting site Thursday morning at the Purdue Co-Rec gyms, the lone on-campus polling place – whether early or on Election Day Nov. 5 – this election cycle.
By the end of six hours of voting, 1,312 voters cast ballots at the Co-Rec, putting it in the lead for the most voters at a single site in Tippecanoe County since early voting started Oct. 8, according to the county election office.
“Today’s early vote totals at the Co-Rec clearly demonstrate why we need an Election Day voting center on Purdue’s campus,” said Lisa Dullum, a Tippecanoe County Council member who had been critical of initial county Election Board schedules that had no polling places on campus.
Amid pressure and accusations of voter suppression – the absence of a polling place on campus would have been a first in a presidential election year dating to the start of the county’s use of vote centers in 2007 – Purdue and county election officials worked through issues of state-mandated available parking and dedicated internet service to set up the day of early voting at Co-Rec.
“I mean, it only makes sense,” Jason Hughes, a Purdue sophomore, said after casting his ballot. “Look at this place. … I didn’t want to take the chance that there won’t be time when the election actually happens.”
Election Day vote centers will include one at West Lafayette City Hall, about three blocks from the eastern edge of campus. But there won’t be one on campus.
Monday morning, Purdue officials sent a letter to the campus community saying that “we measured the walking time between the center of campus and the West Lafayette City Hall voting center next to campus: a two-minute-longer walk than to the Co-Rec.”
The letter said Purdue Student Life would offer golf cart rides to City Hall for students who need mobility assistance on Election Day. Students also have access to free CityBus routes to vote centers in West Lafayette and Lafayette.
That didn’t stave off some of the lingering frustration about having a single option – one that had to be wrangled late in the game – for the campus community.
On Monday, the faculty-led University Senate passed a resolution calling on the university to either cancel classes or have professors decline to give quizzes or exams on Election Day so students have time to navigate lines and vote.
Before the polling place opened Thursday, a group of voter access advocates marched from the Purdue gateway at Grant Street and Mitch Daniels Boulevard to the Co-Rec, looking to drum up attention for the voting site.
“This has to be the highest population density of voters in the county, here on campus, when you take in all the faculty and staff with the students,” Susan Schechter, a Fairfield Township Board member who was in the march, said. “You have to ask why there isn’t more voter access here on campus.”
Randy Vonderheide, president of the three-member Election Board, was at the Co-Rec when the doors opened and lines filled cordoned off chutes leading to 24 vote machines set up in the gym.
“My instincts tell me we’ll come back over here,” Vonderheide said about future presidential and mid-term elections. “But I want to see how the numbers are at this location compared to the others. … But it appears that Purdue’s delivered on everything they told us that they would deliver. I thank them for that.”
On Thursday, voting remained steady at the Tippecanoe County Office Building in downtown Lafayette, with 1,177 voters.
Since early voting started Oct. 8, 15,778 voters had cast a ballot, so far. That compares with 12,466 in 2016; and 20,071 in 2020 at the same stage in early voting, according to the county election office.
Dave Bangert retired after 32 years of reporting and writing on just about everything at the Lafayette Journal & Courier. He started the Based in Lafayette reporting project in 2021.
