STUDENT VOTES -OR LACK THEREOF- MAKE A DIFFERENCE
2011
INVEST IN AMERICA — Voting took priority for Liberty students in 2012. Photo credit: Joel Coleman
October:
Liberty Champion announces that the City Manager Office expedites the public hearing process needed to make changes in local polling precincts by allowing changes if 4,000 students register to vote under a Liberty University address. While it would not impact the November election, the new voting precinct could be in place for the spring primary elections.
2012
February:
4,122 students with the university address were registered to vote, pushing the registrar to notify the Virginia State Board of Elections. As a result, precinct lines are redrawn, allowing those students to vote at a new precinct established in the Vines Center, now Ward III Precinct 2.
March:
The Vines Center precinct reports a total of 590 votes, or 14 percent of registered voters, in the presidential primary. The turnout is much higher than the state average of 5.2 percent.
2013
November:
State elections saw a battle between Democrat Mark Herring and Republican Mark Obenshain, in which Herring defeated Obenshain by a margin of 165 votes. Only 1,171 voters, approximately 21 percent of registered on-campus Liberty voters, show up to vote at this election.
2014
May:
Only 198 students show up to vote for three Lynchburg City Council at-large seats. With more than 5,500 registered students not voting in the election, the results could easily have been different. Of the six candidates running for the seats, Hunsdon Cary, who came in fourth with 3,480 votes, only lost by 1,451 votes.