North Carolina College Republican shuts down campus voter registration drive

The head of the College Republicans at one North Carolina college is determined to stop voter registration drives on her campus, whether they're being sponsored by conservative or liberal groups.

According to MSNBC, Chairwoman Leigh Thomas of the High Point University College Republicans was caught on camera on Wednesday telling a conservative group that it could not register voters on campus because she wasn't comfortable with it.

Wednesday, as MSNBC's Zachary Roth noted, was also the day that state Republicans vowed to keep pushing for more restrictions on North Carolina voters, even if that means taking the fight all the way to the Supreme Court.

In the video, published by the group Campus Reform, Thomas can be heard telling Bree Binder of the conservative action group Turning Point, "I just do not want to have people being registered to vote, whatsoever.”

Turning Point was trying to gain access to the campus -- which requires a student liaison for outside groups -- to register voters for this fall's elections.

Thomas went on to say, “I’m just not sure if this is something I would want to have on this High Point University campus, the registration of voting [sic]."

“I don’t approve of it whatsoever—on a campus like High Point University,” she said. ”I don’t want to have any voting registration happening on this campus, with students.”

“If it’s not done the way we did it back in 2012," she said, "I’m not -- I’m not good with it.”

University spokeswoman Pamela Haynes said that, in fact, High Point held eight different voter registration drives.

“In 2012 alone, leading up to the presidential election, eight voter registration drives were held on campus,” she told MSNBC in an email.

Haynes speculated that Thomas was probably trying to keep the activist group within campus guidelines.

“Because the safety and security of our students is our top priority, HPU asks that outside groups officially register to host activities or events through a recognized student group,” Haynes said. “We believe the student who was recorded on video without her consent was trying to reinforce this policy.”

In a number of states, Republicans have been attempting to limit voting by doing away with early voting and registration, tightening voter ID laws and, on the whole, making it as difficult as possible for black voters, working women, hourly workers, the elderly and students to vote. These are all constituencies that have traditionally voted Democratic.

Watch video about this story, embedded below via Campus Reform: