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FOR IMMEDIATE PRESS RELEASE

Bloc Voting By College Students In City of Denton
Overwhelm Local Homeowners In Propelling
Hydraulic Fracturing Ban
In contrast to college students, permanent residents of the city voted 54% against the drilling ban

Denton, Texas, Friday, November 7, 2014 — A post election analysis of Denton’s hydraulic fracturing drilling ban proposition shows the city’s drilling ban would have failed if not for massive bloc voting by University of North Texas and Texas Woman’s University college students.

UNT and TWU undergraduate and graduate college students (58,516) comprise almost half of Denton’s population of 123,099. Though most of the students are registered outside of Denton County, those who participated in the recent Nov. 4th election showed significantly different viewpoints than the city’s permanent residents on both the drilling ban proposition and in this year’s candidate elections.

Based on returns from the precincts overlapping and near the college campuses, students bloc voted 90% FOR the drilling ban measure while permanent residents throughout the city cast 54% of their ballots AGAINST the drilling ban.

This dramatic disparity in voting between college students and permanent residents caused the drilling ban to pass citywide with 59% and delivered the ban’s margin of victory mostly from just 14 of the city’s 39 precincts. Ironically, very few active drilling wells are located in these near-campus areas of the city.

In sharp contrast, Denton’s heaviest drilling corridor, and its largest permanent homeowner voting precinct (which includes the Robson Ranch and Vintage Homes communities), voted 65% AGAINST the drilling ban. Additionally, Denton seniors who cast their absentee ballots by mail voted 51.5% AGAINST the drilling ban.

The disproportionate impact of college student voting was also noteworthy in the federal and state candidate elections. For example, in 7 of UNT and TWU’s on-campus and near-campus precincts, Libertarian candidate Mark Boler defeated Republican Congressman Michael Burgess, despite Burgess winning 83% in his reelection.

This voting analysis also reflects the nature of the two opposing camps in the election. Supporters of the drilling ban were largely overlapping the college communities. Opponents to the ban included the Denton Chamber of Commerce, the North Texas Fair and Rodeo Association, the Denton County Republican Party and the Denton Record Chronicle Editorial Board.

“The election returns clearly show the permanent residents of Denton favor property owner rights, economic benefits from responsible drilling and American energy independence while our city’s college students did not,” said Bobby Jones, Treasurer of Denton Taxpayers for a Strong Economy.

“Sadly, sorting all this out in the courts will be expensive for local taxpayers,” Jones said. “I don’t fault these college folks for participating in our democracy, but I doubt any of them will offer to repay our city for the massive legal bills we are about to incur.”

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