Press Releases

February 17, 2004

CONTACT: Jonah Goldman at 713/546-5000; 703/201-5586
or Priscilla Ring at 202/467-4999

Prairie View Residents Restricted in Ability to Vote Early
Students Seeks Injunction Against Waller County Officials

(Houston, Texas) – The Prairie View Chapter of the NAACP filed a second voting rights lawsuit in Waller County today. This lawsuit is in response to a recent decision by Waller County officials to reduce the number of days and hours of early voting in Prairie View for the upcoming March 9, 2004 primary. The lawsuit is brought to prevent Waller County from implementing this voting change prior to receiving preclearance from the U.S. Department of Justice as required by Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act.

Prairie View A&M University is a historically black college whose student body is about 90% African American. Less than two weeks after filing a suit in federal court against Waller County’s district attorney for threatening to prosecute students if they register and vote, the Prairie View A&M University students are fighting to keep the only polling place in Prairie View open for at least two days during the early voting period from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. The Kemp, Smith & Coleman Community Center (“Community Center”) is the only polling place in Prairie View and is closest to the university’s campus. Waller County officials decided on February 10, less than two weeks before the early voting period begins, to reduce the early voting schedule in Prairie View to only one day and to reduce the hours that the polling place is open from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

Waller County, like all jurisdictions in Texas, is covered under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. As a result, Waller County cannot legally implement a voting change without first demonstrating to the U.S. Department of Justice (or the District Court of the District of Columbia) that the voting change does not worsen the position of minority voters. As of February 13, the Department of Justice had not received a Section 5 submission from Waller County. In recent years, Waller County has implemented voting changes before receiving the necessary clearance from the Department of Justice.

The county officials’ actions will drastically limit the student’s ability to participate in the upcoming March 9th primary election. The ability to vote early is critical for Prairie View A&M students, who will face midterm exams March 4-6, followed by a week of spring break. “The campus will be a ghost town on election day because of spring break, so early voting is key for many students who want to exercise their right to vote in the primary but will be out of town on the 9th,” said Barbara R. Arnwine, Executive Director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, one of the organizations representing the Prairie View A&M students.

The county’s decision to limit early voting in Prairie View is particularly objectionable given the County Election Administrator’s acknowledgment that it would cost only $196 more to have two days of early voting at the Community Center versus one day. The importance of the Community Center as an early voting site is highlighted by the fact that it ranked second in the county for early voter participation in the 2000 primary election.

Today’s suit asks the court to prevent Waller County officials from reducing the days and hours of early voting at the Prairie View Community Center. Joining the Lawyers' Committee in representing the students are attorneys from the Houston Office of Weil, Gotshal & Manges, and the NAACP, Inc., the ACLU, and People For the American Way Foundation.