It’s 7.3 miles from the Prairie View A&M University campus to the county courthouse of Hempstead in Waller County, Texas. Tuesday, thousands of students plan to walk the distance to protest changes in early voting locations in the county -- and vote to show county leaders that students make a difference.

“The walk will take about two and a half hours, but we’re going to do it. We’ve got to do it,” Christina Sanders, Texas coordinator for Black Youth Vote, told BlackAmericaWeb.com.

Waller County officials earlier this year reduced the number of early voting locations throughout the county from about six to one at the County Courthouse in Hempstead. They said the change was made because the county could not afford to operate the additional sites, including one adjacent to Prairie View campus.

Last week, after receiving pressure from the U.S. Department of Justice, the county announced three additional sites; however, those sites will operate Feb. 22 and 23 and will not be available on Tuesday when early voting begins for the Texas presidential primary, set for March 4.

Critics say none of the additional sites announced by the county are on the Prairie View campus, and because many students leave town on the weekends, early voting on Friday and Saturday doesn’t help their access.

“We have more than 8,000 students on campus, and about 3,000 are registered voters. We should have an early voting location on this campus,” Andre Evans, Prairie View SGA president, told BlackAmericaWeb.com.

“Our problem is that we have not had county leaders in office who care about the needs or concerns of students. We’re going to vote on Tuesday, and in the future, we will vote to get some of those people out of office,” Evans said.

One of the recently-announced early voting sites will be at the Waller County Community Center in Prairie View, according to the county’s website.

Evans said he is expecting 5,000 to 6,000 students to show up for the protest march, which begins at 9 a.m. Tuesday.

“We’re prepared with water and scheduled rest stops,” Evans said. “We also have arranged to provide transportation for students back to campus.”

While the university has not dismissed classes on Tuesday, Evans said a faculty support group is encouraging faculty members to allow students to miss a day of class because of the importance of their cause.

Students also want the Justice Department to intervene and ensure that monitors will be in place in Waller County on Election Day, said Sanders of Black Youth Vote.

“At this point, students feel that there is not a guarantee that their votes will be counted,” she said. In 2006, more than a thousand students were turned away from the polls because their voter registration cards were not processed, she said. “We do not feel they will protect the right of students to vote. It’s like a movie. I am at a loss for words." 

Sanders, a graduate student at Texas Southern University, is working with the Prairie View Student Government Association and other organizations to coordinate the march.

Protests over voting rights is nothing new for students at Prairie View. More than 30 years ago, their protest led to a Supreme Court decision that allows college students to register and vote in communities where they attend school, said Judge DeWayne Charleston, Waller County Justice of the Peace.

In January 2004, more than 2,000 students marched in protest of the Waller County district attorney, who said they did not automatically qualify for voter registration.

According to Texas law, a person can vote if he or she is a U.S. citizen, a resident of the county at least 30 days before an election, is at least 18 year old, is not a felon or determined by a court to be mentally disabled and registers to vote.

Students at the University of Texas have access to an early voting location in its county of Travis County, Texas.