U.S. DISTRICT JUDGE RULES WALLER COUNTY DID NOT DISCRIMINATE AGAINST PRAIRIE VIEW STUDENTS IN 2018 ELECTION

  

In a ruling issued this past Thursday, a federal judge has found that Waller County did not discriminate against Prairie View A&M University students during the 2018 general election.

Prairie View students had sued Waller County in 2018 claiming that it set up an unlawful, lopsided schedule that offered students, most of whom are black, fewer opportunities to vote than the County’s white residents.

The students said that the schedule left them with fewer days and hours to vote than two other large population centers in the County and zero opportunity to vote in the city during the first half of early voting.

Prairie View had only five days compared to twelve days for one population center, and eleven days for the other.

After the initial suit was filed, the County set up an early voting site on campus with an additional three hours of early voting on each of those days, and also offered five hours of weekend voting at the Prairie View City Hall.

Students argued that City Hall was a two-and-half-mile walk, and many of them did not have cars.

In a 128 page ruling, U.S. District Judge Charles R. Eskridge said there wasn’t enough evidence to establish a concern over the lack of any early voting location on campus or in the city of Prairie View during the first week of early voting that year.

He also found that the Waller County Commissioners Court allocated early voting locations and hours on an “objective and reasonable basis,” and that it did not run afoul of the federal Voting Rights Act or the U.S. Constitution.

Lawyers for the students brought up Waller County’s history of alleged racism and voter suppression. However, Eskridge side with county officials who said they were “being painted with too broad a brush” based on history in which that they played no part in.

Eskridge noted that Prairie View had more voting hours than smaller population centers and that the two precincts with the most allocated hours were majority-black districts.

He added that the early voting plan that was adopted followed normal procedures including a joint agreement between local party chairs.

It was actually the Democrat Party Chair that asked for early voting in Prairie View to be pushed back so that it wouldn’t interfere with the University’s homecoming activities.

Eskridge concluded saying that, at best, the students merely established that it was an inconvenience imposed on them with respect to the 2018 Early Voting schedule.