Penn student voter turnout has been low in recent years, and partisan groups on campus believe this may be caused by the location of the major polling place, David Rittenhouse Laboratory.
But unless a petition submitted by the Penn College Democrats on Friday asking for the addition of four polling places across campus is passed by the Office of the City Commissioners this week, most students living on campus will vote there on Nov. 2.
The University is located in Philadelphia's 27th ward and is divided into six districts, five of which vote at DRL.
The Pennsylvania election code states that, in the event that there are no available public buildings for voters within a single district, polling places may be located in an adjacent district. On campus, however, two districts are currently more than one district removed from DRL but still vote there.
There are major concerns over the petition, not the least of which is changing the polling location only three weeks before the election.
"It might simply be too late in the process to roll out a proper campaign to educate voters [about] ... new polling locations," said Carol de Fries, executive director of the Office of Government, Community and Public Affairs.
Democrats argue that the proposal must be passed because of the election law violation, though there may be some gray areas in the law, as well.
"It's all a question of where you can find accommodation," said Frederick Voigt, executive director of the Committee of Seventy, a political watchdog group. "Voting places are voluntary, so when you talk about a campus like Penn, you're limited by the concentrations of people and problems with finding places."
At first, both the College Democrats and Republicans supported the proposal for adding polling places across campus, an initiative that also initially won the approval of the University.
But as the process went on, College Republicans grew wary of the plan, and are instead creating a new proposal.
In the original proposal, Penn officials agreed to host four additional voting places -- in Harrison and Harnwell college houses, the Quadrangle and Steinberg-Dietrich Hall.
Last week, when the College Republicans withdrew their support, the University no longer felt it could support what might be perceived as a partisan initiative.
"We have the facilities and we could make those facilities available," de Fries said. "But it could be perceived as a partisan request, and the University is not allowed to engage in partisan activities."
The College Republicans said a major reason for withdrawing support for the initiative is due to the difficulty they have finding staff for local polling places during non-presidential election years.
The group now favors maintaining a single polling place in a more centralized location.
College Democrats counter that one centralized location could lead to difficulties with long lines and delays.
"It seems these problems would be a lot less discouraging for students with the polling places all spread out," Penn Democrats President Rich Eisenberg said.
"Our ward leader ... is concerned about not having Republicans on all those polling places," Pennsylvania Federation of College Republicans Chairman David Copley said. "We're concerned for the future elections that nobody really cares about."
The Wharton senior said that party volunteers prevent election fraud.
And there are other issues that the Republican ward leader Matt Wolfe is worried about.
"A persistent problem is that Penn students almost all move every year and don't always re-register," Wolfe said. "I think it's very valuable for every Penn student to know every year where they vote."
De Fries believes that polling places closer to campus residences would enhance voter turnout.
"It'll ease the flow of being able to vote, because it's right there," she said.
