From Virginia comes some familiar news: People denying out-of-state students the right to vote. The Supreme Court confirmed in 1979 that students can vote in the state they attend college but since then, various groups have tried to discourage students from voting for political and racial reasons. It can be a pretty effective tactic, too, since often students are confused about where they’re supposed to vote and don’t take the time to register in their new state (unless the Bus Project approaches them with a clipboard). And the desire to vote decreases dramatically when someone’s yelling “Carpetbagger!”
Trust me on that – this fight came up back during the Iowa caucuses, when candidates were clawing for every handful of votes and Hillary Clinton actively discouraged non-native Iowan students from voting, since students leaned heavily toward Obama and thus the less they voted, the better. The choices of several hundred out-of-state students (including me) made a big difference in Obama’s win there.
Now that Hillary’s into all Democrats voting for Obama, though, local Virginia government officials have taken up the call, issuing totally incorrect press releases saying it’s illegal for Barack canvassers to register out-of-state Virginia Tech Students. This is frustrating. And deceptive. The argument goes: Students shouldn’t vote where they go to college because they’re not involved in the community there or keep track of local issues. Bullshit. This is about not wanting young people to vote because you think their ideas or wrong or inherently unwise. I always feel that if there were less hurdles to young people voting, we wouldn’t have people older than Alaska in office. If you happen to be one of the 4,798 P.S.U. students who’s not a resident, register here.
Some denials here.
http://www.boingboing.net/2008/09/08/virginia-politicians.html
From the NYT:
In 2003, in Waller County, Tex., the district attorney wrote a column in a local newspaper threatening to prosecute students at Prairie View A&M, a historically black university, for illegal voting. The project sued, and the district attorney backed down.
In the 1970s, that same county required Prairie View students who wanted to register to fill out a questionnaire asking, among other things, whether they owned property in the county, had an automobile registered there or belonged to any church, club or organization unrelated to the college. A challenge to that practice led the Supreme Court to uphold students’ rights to vote at their college address.
In close states, these dirty tricks change the outcome of the election. It’s the same for excessively negative campaigning to disgust voters to the extent they don’t vote. Our voter turnout is a disgrace internationally. Yet it is university students and their peers who have the greatest stake in and hopes for our country’s direction. Wherever you are, register within the legal deadline. In the last few elections, a national volunteer network of attorneys has been on call around election day to challenge disenfranchisement.
Also if you are in a state with electronic voting machines, it might be a good idea to vote absentee, on paper.
It would be so sad to go back to the days before the Voting Rights Act when black Americans in the South were prevented from voting by similar dirty tricks.