Annabelle de St. MauriceElection officials at Wydown Middle School initially denied some Washington University students the right to vote on Tuesday.
Newly-registered voters and students originally from Missouri had no trouble casting their ballots, but it was another story entirely for South 40 residents who had voted at Wydown in past years.
When they presented their identification to election judges, the students discovered that their names were not in the binders that list each district’s registered voters. According to Missouri’s Provisional Voting Law, such voters should receive a provisional ballot, which carries the same weight as a typical ballot once verified.
However, many students were denied provisional ballots by one of the election judges working at Wydown.
In response to notification from frustrated would-be voters, the College Democrats placed a call to the Missouri Democratic Party. Several attorneys arrived at Wydown, and by the late afternoon, election officials handed out provisional ballots freely.
“I would estimate that there were less than 5,000 provisional ballots cast in the state of Missouri,” said Board of Elections Director David Welch. Because provisional ballots are only counted when they could change the outcome of an election, this means that those cast by WU students will never be tallied.
Additionally, many students did not realize that this year’s polling location for anyone living north of Forsyth Boulevard was changed to the Our Lady of Lourdes Church, about one mile away from Wydown Middle School, which remained the polling location for those residing south of Forsyth.
College Democrats President Aaron Gordon commented on the confusion at Wydown on Election Day. “It was a problem. I don’t know if it’s something that would ever make or break an election, but it needs not to happen again.”