TOUGALOO, Miss.—Jamira Scott and Kailyn Wilson walked into the classroom-turned-voting precinct at Tougaloo College on Nov. 5. The young women handed their IDs to a poll worker at the check-in table and patiently waited for a ballot.
“I don’t see her,” the poll worker said, looking up at the poll manager standing over her shoulder.
“You are not registered here. You have to vote in Hollandale. You can’t vote here if you didn’t change your registration to 500 W. County Line Road,” the poll manager said, referring to Tougaloo College’s address.
Scott, who was registered in Hollandale, Miss., looked forlornly at the table of adults. “I didn’t know that.”
Under Mississippi law, residents must be registered to vote at the place of their permanent residence. For college students, this is usually either at their parents’ or guardians’ home or their campus dormitory or apartment. The Secretary of State’s website explains the pros and cons of each option. The site also advises students to start the process of applying for an absentee ballot early.
Scott registered during her senior year at Hollandale Simmons High School, where it was mandatory for graduation. This would have been her first time voting. She said her high-school counselors never talked about absentee voting or changing her voter registration to her campus address.
“This is all new to me,” Scott said.
Wilson couldn’t vote either. She is registered in Hattiesburg.
“I can’t go home. We have practice,” she told the Mississippi Free Press a few minutes later.
Scott, a sophomore, and Wilson, a junior, had just walked over to the college’s voting precinct from Tougaloo’s Get Out the Vote Rally, where college leaders spoke about the importance of voting at one of the state’s oldest private HBCUs.
“We hold immense power not only as individuals but as a collective voice that can shape the future of our community,” Reuben V. Anderson Pre-Law Society President Jaiden Joseph told those gathered on the lawn of Woodsworth Chapel. “Voting is not just a right. It’s a duty to honor our past and to shape our future. The courage of the Tougaloo Nine reminds us that our actions carry the power for change.”
Two students at the rally said events like those on campus today were important in educating students and encouraging them to honor the freedoms their ancestors fought for them to have.
“When people my age say, ‘Oh, I don’t get into politics because of so and so,’ it’s kind of heartbreaking because my ancestors, your ancestors, fought this hard to get us even in the space,” sophomore Kyoscha Spears said. “Now, you don’t want to vote because you’re not in tune to it. It doesn’t matter if you’re in tune or not; you should get out and exercise your right.”
Spears and fellow sophomore Alaya Cherry proudly pointed to their white oval “I Voted” stickers as they spoke. Scott, however, would leave the polls without the coveted sticker. She did not have the chance to exercise her right this go-around.
“I really wanted to do it this year and help out,” Scott said.
She said that alongside the voter-registration drives and voting rallies, she hopes that college officials work to inform student voters more about the process.
“(We need) mandatory student meetings, and if we don’t go, we get a bad grade,” Scott suggested. “That will make everybody come out.”
Read more coverage of this year’s elections cycle at our Election Zone 2024 page.
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