When a student at the Lower
Bucks campus picked up a
form at the Voter Registration
Drive, he assumed that those
involved were there to aid him.
He didn’t think that political
game-playing would be
involved. He was clearly
wrong.
Tyler Thurston, a 26-year-old
engineering major, was walking
out of his history class on
Sept. 21 and went straight for
the voter registration table. His
teacher, like many others on
that day, had given him a registration
card to fill out, and he
wanted an extra for his girlfriend.
When he received the
card, he immediately noticed
that something was off.
“It wasn’t folded normally, it
was folded in half against it’s
[the card] original fold,” said
Thurston. His teacher had told
him about issues with registration
cards in the past, and he
was suspicious.
Thurston opened the form
right in front of the table and
alleges that the form was not in
fact blank, but instead was
already pre-checked for
Republican party affiliation.
He brought back the form and
demanded a blank card. “He
gave me a new one and put
mine back on top of a big pile
of other cards that were folded
the same way,” said Thurston.
“It was completely deliberate
and wrong,” Thurston said,
still visibly angry as he
recalled the event a week later;
“most of us don’t come to that
table fully informed. They
were taking advantage of people.”
The event, coordinated by
Bucks’ Student Life office,,
was a bi-partisan effort to raise
awareness and produce a higher
turnout for the midterm
elections. A volunteer from
each party was present to supply
and assist in filling out
voter registration forms.
“This is not a practice that
I’ve ever heard of done by the
Democratic Committee,” said
Neil Samuels, the deputy chair
of the Bucks County
Democratic Committee, who
sent a volunteer to help with
voter registration at the Lower
Bucks campus event.
Samuels said that he did hear
complaints from that day about
cards being handed out prechecked
for Republican affiliation
status. “I immediately shot
down emails to them, saying
this needed to be looked into.”
He added: “I heard from people
at the time that it didn’t
matter what party that you
were registered for, and that is
absolutely not true. We all have
the same goal in mind and
that’s to help people to vote;
and to pull one over on students
– that’s just not right.”
The Bucks County
Republican Committee was
unavailable to comment on the
incident.
Thurston’s story isn’t an isolated
case. Complaints were
made to the Student Life office
on the first day of the event.
matt Cipriano, the director of
Student Life Programs, said
that the complaints have led to
new policy changes for future
voter registration events. Any
volunteer caught pre-registering
voter affiliation will be
immediately removed from
campus grounds. “We don’t
want anybody to be misled,”
said Cipriano. The new rules
will be enforced during the
next voter registration drive in
the Spring.
If somebody accidentally
registered for a different party
affiliation, they can still vote
however they wish during the
upcoming elections.
The issue arises during primaries,
which are closed in
Pennsylvania. If you were
accidentally registered as a
Republican and wished to vote
in the Democratic primary, you
would be unable to vote until
you changed your party affiliation.
If somebody wanted to
change their party affiliation
before a primary election, they
would need to do so 15 days
before the primary at the latest
For those who may be
unaware of their current party
affiliation, or may be concerned
that they were wrongfully
registered, you can check
your status by going to
www.CanIVote.org. The site,
which is run by the National
Association of Secretaries of
State, is a non-partisan website
that easily links to your
region’s Department of State
website, where you can quickly
find out your current registration
status.