Students: Election protests hinder voting

Students worry about being called to testify

By Kristin Pitts
Staff Writer

Friday, October 30, 2009

Students at Elizabeth City State University say election protests that have resulted in their peers being summoned to a hearing before the Board of Elections won’t stop them from voting, but the controversy will weigh heavily on their minds as they cast their ballots.

“It does kind of make me hesitant,” Drumaine Toussaint, a freshman said, “because this is the second time.”

Toussaint was referring to the fact that for the second Elizabeth City election in a row, the votes of ECSU students have been questioned.

Two years ago, 4th Ward voter Richard Gilbert challenged 18 ECSU students' right to vote under state residency laws. The Pasquotank Board of Elections later dismissed Gilbert’s complaint, ruling the students had met the state’s eligibility requirements for voting.

This year, unsuccessful 4th Ward candidates Volanda Watts and Lennard Bartlett Sr. have both filed election complaints that involve ECSU students.

Watts claims that 94 students who voted in the 4th Ward election, don’t live at the addresses on their registration card. She asked the Board of Elections to subpoena 16 of them, including four residing in the Microtel motel. Watts claims that the four students voted in the 4th Ward election when they should have voted in the 3rd Ward election, since that is where the hotel is located.

Bartlett’s complaint concerns what he feels was negative campaigning at ECSU on the part of other candidates, which may have resulted in his loss. He is especially interested in a candidates forum organized by the Student Government Association at which he believes students may have been advised to vote “for a particular person.”

Between Watts’ and Bartlett’s complaints, 28 students and ECSU’s housing director have been subpoenaed to a hearing that will be held on Wednesday — a day after runoff elections for mayor and 3rd Ward councilor.

Toussaint said that the fear of being subpoenaed wouldn’t stop him from voting, but that it would be in the back of his mind.

Kendrick Combs, a sophomore, said he, too, has no plans to stop voting in city elections. But he said he understands why some students would be reluctant to vote.

“Why vote if it’s not going to help?” Combs said, referring to votes that might be disqualified later.

Senior Nina Nelson said the possibility of being subpoenaed to testify at an election protest hearing “is too much trouble” and has pushed her to keep her voter registration in her home state.

“I don’t want that headache with the subpoena,” Nelson said.

Other students, like Troy Fitzhugh, a sophomore, wish that the voting process was more clear and organized.

Fitzhugh says he worries that the controversies following the two previous two 4th Ward elections will stop students from going to the polls.

“Plain and simple instructions would make it easier to vote without thinking twice,” Fitzhugh said.

Fitzhugh added that instructions would be especially helpful for students who didn’t grow up in Elizabeth City and may not be privy to the controversies surrounding the past two elections.

Sophomore Biancha Reid, who says she disagrees with the allegations in Watts’ and Bartlett’s complaints, worries, along with a number of her classmates, that the possibility of students being subpoenaed will make students less likely to vote.

“It is discouraging a lot of students to vote,” Reid said. “It discouraged me a little bit.”