Recently, I wrote a post titled “Suppress the vote, 2013-2014—on Campus” (https://academeblog.org/2013/04/28/suppress-the-vote-2013-2014-versions-on-campus/).
In the post, I describe the efforts of the Republican majorities in the North Carolina and the Ohio legislature to create penalties that will effectively reduce the numbers of college students voting in both states.
In North Carolina, parents will now lose the deduction for their children who are college students and vote in the districts in which they are living while attending school.
In Ohio, where colleges and universities have long provided out-of-state students with documents attesting to their Ohio residency while students, and have done so in accordance with the directives on the state site describing the ways in which a voter can document residency, colleges and universities that provide such documentation will now be forced to charge such students the in-state tuition rate. It should be noted that out-of-state students who are living on campus probably do not receive and pay utility bills and may not have Ohio drivers licenses. So, discouraging colleges and universities from providing proof of their current Ohio residency is, in effect, a major obstacle to their registering to vote.
I pointed out in that post, that this bill will affect more than 32,000 Ohio students, or one-fifth of the margin by which President Obama carried the state in 2012.
This past week, Rachel Maddow surveyed similar efforts in five or six other states aimed at reducing the number of college students who will vote.
To stand up for the voting rights of college students in Ohio, please add your name to the following petitions: http://my.democrats.org/Voting-Rights-OH and http://www.change.org/petitions/ohio-general-assembly-stand-against-voter-suppression-at-ohio-colleges-and-universities
To stand up for the voting rights of college students in North Carolina, please add your name to the following petition: https://www.change.org/petitions/north-carolina-legislature-do-not-support-nc-senate-bill-667-2.
Then please forward the link to this post to tour friends and your colleagues!
I’m not sure I understand this. I am a pretty staunch Republican and never in my life have I or any other Republican I know want to supress any voting by any U.S. citizen of legal age to vote. The problem Republicans see with what is being proposed is having votes given by law that are not fraudulent. If we allow systems that create voting with fraudulent results we do not get a government that responds to what the people want. It’s pretty simple to me. Proper citizenship, age, and identification is all that should be required to be a responsible voter. There are already ways in which to vote absentee. Perhaps we find ways to encourage that in a secured manner that does not create a situation of disenfranchisement for any political persuasion.
Sometimes I wonder if this issue isn’t really about speaking out for or against issues in the election if you aren’t a Democrat. Allowing illegal aliens (sorry), no proper identification, threatening gestures, etc at our polls has the potential to create election results that are not a reflection of the will of the people.
i welcome points of view that could change my mind. So if you have one please… share it with me.
Thank you,
Conservative and proud of it.
Sorry, but this is fairly obvious voter suppression by Republican legislatures. In the 1970s, after the voting age was lowered from 21 to 18, the right of college students to vote in the states and districts in which they are attending school was litigated and re-litigated, and there is now a substantial body of case law supporting their right to vote where they are enrolled. These new laws, however, provide substantial financial disincentives for students to vote where they attend school in North Carolina and for schools to provide proof of residency to facilitate students’ registering to vote in Ohio.
Can’t they use absentee ballots? What provisions in the new law secure the vote without fraudulent results? Can’t groups that work hard to assist people to register to vote still do so and arrange for absentee ballots are received by college student voters?
This last election there were a lot of criticisms about suppressing the military vote of those serving oversees. Is this the same process being used on the college campus?
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Reblogged this on Ohio Higher Ed.