More than 1,000 Prairie View A&M University students marched seven miles to a polling place, protesting the county’s refusal to open an polling place on or near the campus.

As part Black Youth Vote! movement, students and local community leaders said they wanted to march because of the county’s pattern impeding students’ right to vote. Students wore T-shirts saying, “It is 2008. We will vote!”

The groups also urged people to send a letter to the Department of Justice to support their efforts. Officials at the historically black university have already agreed to excuse the 8,000-plus student body to participate in the march, which will be held on the first day of early voting.

According to Waller County Judge DeWayne Charleston,  the Waller County Commission recently decided to eliminate six early voting locations in the county, including the one adjacent to campus requiring PVAMU students to drive or walk 7.3 miles to vote in Hempstead, a nearby town. Waller County covers 525 square miles and has only one polling site for early voting this year.