After facing a social media backlash, the University of Georgia announced Thursday afternoon that there will be an on-campus voting location for students and faculty to go to.
In a Wednesday afternoon statement, UGA officials said that due to COVID-19 safety concerns, the university decided against hosting a polling location.
“Those comparing this matter to a football game should be able to recognize that football games will be played outdoors but we will still require social distancing by substantially reducing capacity in the stadium,” the statement read.
Instead, UGA was going to set up a shuttle service for student voters to access a polling station in downtown Athens, GA.
Before the statement was released, UGA Votes, a student-run voting group said via a press release that it was “deeply saddened” that there would be no on-campus voting after conversations with the university’s government relations, with the primary concern being the “potential liability related to the COVID-19 pandemic.”
The group said it proposed using Stegeman Coliseum, where the Bulldogs play basketball and volleyball, but the location was “ultimately deemed infeasible.”
Soon after UGA released its own statement, it began receiving thousands of negative comments on social media:
“That’s embarrassing,” said former NBA Head Coach Stan Van Gundy via Twitter.
“Too bad you don’t have a stadium you could use for voting like the stadium you use for football,” said American Historian Kevin Kruse.
Democratic U.S. Senate Candidate Jon Ossoff chimed in as well, urging the university to “reverse course immediately and provide students with safe, on-campus early voting.”
State and national news outlets including CNN, The Washington Post, The Hill and The Atlanta Journal Constitution also picked up the story.
A few hours later, the university released another statement, saying it would be “more than willing” to make a safer site, such as the Stegeman Coliseum, if approved by Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, along with the local elections office.
Thursday morning, university officials said Stegeman Coliseum was approved for early voting.
“We look forward to working with state and local elected officials to facilitate on-campus voting in this indoor venue, which is large enough to support safe social distancing,” a statement read.
Sky Lebron can be reached at slebron@wjct.org, 904-358-6319 or on Twitter at @SkylerLebron.
Photo used under Creative Commons license.
