According to this article in the Rolling Stone, local election officials are using complex questionnaires and strict requirements to discourage college students from voting where they live, in violation of federal and state laws.
Why are election officials erecting these barriers to student voting?
I find it hard to believe that there’s a conspiracy to prevent likely Democrat voters from registering. It seems more likely that local officials just don’t want students to influence local policies regarding alcohol, noise ordinances, and other things that affect young people, even when the size of the college population means that young people are a majority.
When the number of students approaches or exceeds the number of non-student residents in an area, and permanent residents worry that the students’ votes will outweigh their own, is that grounds to discourage students from voting?
I say absolutely not. Students spend most of their time in that area, even if they live in a dorm. They are subject to local laws. They’re part of the local economy, both as workers and consumers. Even if they only live there 9 months out of the year, they still deserve as much say in their local government as anyone else who lives there.
Will these policies affect the outcome of this year’s Presidential election?
I don’t think so… I think Kerry will win by a small margin. But I do think that if more students were able to vote, he’d win by a much bigger margin.
What can be done to eliminate these barriers to student voting?
I don’t have much of an answer here - if local officials are unaware of the laws, or intentionally violate them, all that can be done is to replace those officials. But if the residents who are allowed to vote want to discourage students from voting, they’ll probably keep those officials in power.
The article suggests that the actual residency requirements are left up to local officials, instead of being covered by federal law, so that’s something that could be clarified. IMO a clear definition of residency, coupled with stricter enforcement of the laws allowing students to vote where they live, is the best solution.
One thing that local registrars might be doing, with all those questions is trying to determine if that student is, in fact, a permanent resident of the precinct in which he is living. Such students must file a permanent change with the board of elections, and can then be considered permanent residents. Residency is not automatically determined by the place you sleep most often.
It has often been the case that participants in mass registration drives are ill advised in the precise definition of residency. A student who is living in a dormitory can be a permanent resident, but is not automatically one. Most dormitory residents in college have permanent residences in different political jurisdictions, often in different states. Many students have permanent addresses at which they are legally entitled to vote. If you moved in at the start of term, it might be that you aren’t eligible to vote by the first Tuesday in November, unless you vote in your prior precinct, by absentee ballot. The documentation necessary to determine all this might seem coercive to the student, but may actually be done to preserve the process of elections. The question of driver’s license might be done because it is policy of law to use your legal residence as the address on your driver’s license. It also determines where you register, and pay taxes on your car.
In the case of a small town, with a very large University within its limits, the actual definition of town residency is subject to determination by the laws of the town. That might well be described deliberately as to prevent the enfranchisement of a huge transient population with no real concern for the best interests of the town itself. State and National elections run by that town must include the University as a legal residence for the State, and the nation, but may make it a separate precinct without the right to vote on town issues.
If you are a permanent resident of the state and county where your university is situated, you do have the right to be a registered voter, in that precinct. You also have the obligation to pay taxes and hold permits under that legal residence. If your University will not permit such a claim, your problem is with them, not the local registrar. Get an apartment.
I’d like to say that it surprises me, but it doesn’t. When I voted in 1996 for the first time, I remember the poll workers making snide comments about how we shouldn’t be able to vote in the town we went to school in…even though we lived there 8 months of the year, and in our home states(my family lived in MA until I was a junior) a mere 4 months. Even though they gave people a hard time- and made some people go back to their dorms for “proof” of recidency like a phone bill- they did ultimately have to let us vote. A bunch of angry nobs getting something like this together in the eight years since? That’s almost believable.
One thing left out of the article makes it more toubling that they mention NH: in this state it isn’t easy to get an absentee ballot. I know that in some states anyone can have one who want it, but here you have to either be disabled or plan to be out of town during the election. Being at school should be a valid under the out of town option, but how would a college student know that if the reason was challenged by some poll person on a power trip? First time voters are new to the voting process, period, never mind a special case like obtaining an absentee ballot… I’m not saying that people would deny them absentee ballots, but they could.