Youthful voters – the 18-29 year olds – have an enormous stake in the outcome of the 2012 election for President and who has control of Congress. Issues such as whether they will have to confront the impacts of a nation that continues to ignore global warming, whether they will have access to health care, whether there will be jobs that pay a livable wage and provide upward mobility, whether there are public schools and affordable college, whether the nation has a leader more inclined to military action than diplomacy, what taxes they will pay, even what sort of retirement they might imagine, all of these will be shaped by this election.
They are also the target of actions to suppress voting through enacting photo ID and voter ID requirements that put up hurdles to register to vote, or to cast a ballot.
“That’s the case in increasing number of states,” says Dan Vicuna, staff attorney at Fair Elections, and coordinator for Campus Vote project. “Legislatures and governors who have the impression that students vote ‘the wrong way’ – against their party – therefore have decided to create these unnecessary barriers to make it more difficult for students to get involved in the political process.”
That isn’t necessarily paranoia – the Republicans have something to be fearful about. There are 46 million 18-29 olds – one-fourth of the electorate, and 68 percent of them went for Obama in 2008. Though the number is expected to be more tempered this time around, a poll just released by the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE), which focuses on young people, found they favor Obama by a 55 percent, 42 percent over Mitt Romney. Almost 34 percent of respondents said they would “definitely” vote for Barack Obama if the election were held today, versus 16.1 percent who would definitely vote for Mitt Romney.
Youth voters are particularly vulnerable to voter suppression tactics – many are registering or casting a ballot for the first time, may not have drivers licenses (or if they do, not in the state they are attending school) or a passport or other forms of specified photo ID.
More insidiously, college voters live between two voting jurisdictions (hometown and campus) which likely have different rules and requirements to register, vote in person or by absentee ballot. Youth voters are highly mobile, moving for new jobs and renting different apartments year by year, perhaps even within 30 days of the registration deadline for registering to vote; they may be in transition and not know the address they will be at in order to receive an absentee ballot by mail (as Texas requires) in the timeframe to apply for a ballot, receive it and return the ballot. Young women may have the added complication of marrying and having a name different from a birth certificate (wedding license is not listed for ID purposes).
When you read the requirements for each state (and each state is different), it can be confusing, and confusion is the friend of those who would suppress the vote.
Technically, young voters can be challenged on the basis of residency from registering to vote where they are, and challenged from voting absentee where they were because of the residency requirements and deadlines or because first-time voters may be required to show photo ID or vote in person.
Florida made it a criminal offense – subject to hefty fines – to register voters, and is threatening to prosecute a high school social studies teacher who registered her students in a civics class. The onerous rules have already intimidated the League of Women Voters into shutting down its voter registration effort.
The overriding issue is that there is a serious and dangerous reversal of basic principles that there is fundamental right to vote, that our democracy is based on consent of the governed and that society encourages its citizens to participate and vote.
Certain measures have been imposed specifically to make it harder for college students to register and to vote, but in the end it may not even be the specific regulations, but the confusion surrounding the regulations that will leave college students vulnerable to being disenfranchised.
For example, Wisconsin initially did not allow university IDs but the university system changed some information and now they can be used but only if it is updated. South Carolina does not accept student IDs for voting and Texas is proposing voter ID that accepts gun carry permits but not student ID’s from state colleges.
States also have been known to use misleading information directed at college students, Vicuna said.
New Hampshire added some fairly intimidating language to voter registration application, informing people that if they registered to vote locally they had to register their car and get in-state drivers license, but the state Legislature hadn’t made the change in the motor vehicle laws, or to the election code; it just has the statute.
Much has been made of the photo ID or voter ID issue, but more dangerous are the intimidation tactics designed to make college students just not bother.
In Maine, the Republican party chair questioned the voting eligibility of more than 200 college students because they paid out-of-state tuition. Maine Secretary of State Charles Summers, despite finding no evidence of voter fraud, sent intimidating letters to dozens of students suggesting they should get Maine driver’s licenses and register their vehicles in Maine — or relinquish their right to vote.
You might think that New York State welcomes youth voters because it has not enacted any new requirements such as for photo ID, but apparently, it is not necessary because the rules already open the way for partisans to challenge voters, as they did at Vassar College.
When Vassar students went to the polls in 2009, many had their eligibility challenged because of discrepancies between the address where they registered the year before, and the address where they lived that year.
“You can’t use your freshman dorm [as your current address under which you register to vote] if you no longer live there,” said Republican political strategist Ken Girardin. “Vassar misinformed its students,” he claimed referring to Vassar News Infosite, which stated “Where you vote depends upon the residence you lived in when you registered to vote, not necessarily where you live now.”
Apparently, even changing from one dorm room to another can be used to disqualify a voter, but in this case, they were challenging college students who had moved off campus, inadvertently to a different legislative district. But the students were also challenged based on declaring the campus as their domicile, rather than their parents’ home.
“New York State has some of the most cumbersome, obstreperous, frustrating, confusing, difficult voting laws in the U.S.,” Political Science Professor Sidney Plotkin was quoted as saying in Vassar’s Miscellany News. “That’s a legacy of the old days of machine politics when the dominant parties wanted to assure that only their voters would get to the polls.”
And this legacy is still alive today, he says. “The two parties in New York cooperate to complicate these rules. As a result, judges gain an enormous amount of discretionary power to decide who gets to vote and who doesn’t. “It’s very easy to violate New York State’s voting laws,” Plotkin concluded.
Judicial discretion – and intimidation – was on display against the Vassar students, in the second front of voter suppression – casting the ballot.
“The judge had a bunch of students who asked for court orders allowing them to vote, based on having lived on campus for more than 30 days before the election, were entitled to vote in NY and were being denied access to the polls,” related John Ciampoli, who is now Nassau County attorney but at the time of the Vassar suit was counsel for the New York State Republican Committee.
“The judge asked each student, ‘Do you have your drivers’ license?’ The first student was from Brooklyn or Queens, – and this was an upstate courthouse. The judge asked whether he had notified motor vehicle that you moved – the court order that entitles you to vote also would inform the district attorney ‘so you can be prosecuted for not changing drivers license…’ he said. (Does this count as intimidation?)
Another Vassar student, from Washington, DC was asked to produce a drivers license and then was asked, ‘Do you get mail at that address?’ ‘Have your belongings at that address? ‘Are you going home for Christmas?’”
If everyone could be challenged because they keep clothes in their parents’ house and go home for Christmas, what does that say?
Says Ciampoli, “’Residence’ for election purpose is the place to which you always intend to return….. motor vehicle law says you must establish your driver’s license at your primary residence.”
What is more, registering to vote at the college campus makes you liable for paying state income taxes, Ciampoli says.
“The law has changed over the years, allowing students to register at college campus – however, what happens to a lot of students in a lot of states is that if register on campus, you may gain or lose your tax status in your home state – kids these days have jobs, earn income – a college student from Florida, where no income tax, registers on campus here and declare themelves a New York Sate resident, would have to pay New York State income taxes and if they don’t would penalty.” Ciampoli said.
“A lot of do-gooders say ‘register to vote,’ and they don’t tell them the responsibilities that come with it…. there are people who go out and register college kids without explaining to them the ramifications of establishing a legal residence..
Not surprisingly, Ciampoli prefers college students to vote in their hometowns, rather than at the campus (except when students were challenged for voting in their hometowns instead of at college).
“The way I tend to look at it, most of these kids turned 18 while they were in high school, a lot have registered to vote where their home is, and probably it is most advisable to register where your home is.”
“Nobody talks about the fall out – when move off campus, you can end up disenfranchised, when graduate and move away, end up disenfranchised… when they move away from campus, they usually move back to home….”
“A college student does not have a choice of where to register. They have a choice of declaring where they wish to reside,” said Ciampoli.
So here you have it: any college student can be challenged by asking them where they intend to spend Christmas, and they can be intimidated from casting a ballot by threatening them with prosecution for not having changed their drivers license or car insurance (not true).
But Vicuna said, “As the Supreme Court has held, college students should have the same right to vote as all members of community; they live in the local community, are frequenting businesses, and have to abide by the local laws.”
You might think it is easier to vote by absentee ballot in your hometown, but that is not necessarily true either (there is an organization to help with information on that).
“It really depends, some states require first-time voters to vote in person, so that makes absentee not an easy option, Vicuna said, “so that depends on where college is and where ‘home’ is – some are more welcoming, some make it more difficult to vote absentee.”
In fact, New York State “may” have that requirement (it’s really not clear): According to the state’s election site, “If this is your first time voting in a federal election in New York, you may have to present ID before voting on Election Day. Identification may include (but is not limited to): a current and valid photo ID; a current utility bill, bank statement, paycheck, or other government document that shows your current and complete name and current address. If you’ve previously voted in a federal election in New York, you don’t need to bring an ID to the polls. If you have additional questions about voting in New York, please contact: Board of Elections: (518) 474-6220; info@elections.ny.gov.”
This level of confusion permeates where and how to register to vote and can be exploited by partisans who want to challenge and intimidate youth voters.
According to the Brennan Center for Justice, “As a student, you have a constitutional right to register and vote in the place you truly consider to be “home” — whether that’s your parents’ house, your apartment, or your dorm room. But before you make the important decision about where to vote, make sure you know the rules (and sometimes consequences) of registering to vote in that state.
“Your residency in a particular state is legally meaningful – it affects where you can be sued in court, where you have to pay taxes, where you can get married or divorced, where you have to register your car, and so on. Although residence is determined in similar ways for many of these purposes, different states apply different rules for different kinds of residency, so you can end up being a resident for one purpose [such as for voting] but not for another,” the Brennan Center for Justice advises.
Some states base their voting residency laws on “domicile.” There are two things that can be tricky for students about establishing domicile at a school address. First, there’s usually a presumption against changing your domicile, meaning that you usually keep your old domicile until you gain a new one, even if you’ve moved out of your old domicile. Under these guidelines, most students’ default domicile is their parents’ house. Second, in order to establish a new domicile you often need to assert an intention to remain somewhere permanently or indefinitely, in other words, to make it your permanent home.
But Rock the Vote is more encouraging: “Even if you are already registered at home, you can register at school. You are much more likely to vote. And local election officials cannot treat students differently than they treat any other citizen when it comes to voting. (That’s in the U.S. Constitution, baby!) You cannot vote in two places — like at your parent’s house and at school — but if you consider your dorm or address at school your residence, you should register to vote there.”
The misinformation is so pervasive, and so confusing, and so intimidating, that there are a score of organizations and websites designed to clarify the rules and separate myths from fact in order to register and vote, specifically for college students and young voters.
Resources to help:
The Brennan Center for justice has excellent information: http://www.brennancenter.org/content/section/category/voting_rights_elections/and state-by-state guides at: http://www.brennancenter.org/content/pages/svg_state_write_ups/.
Rockthevote.org: League of Women Voters’ online nationwide election resource – www.VOTE411.org – where there is state-by-state information on voter registration deadlines and requirements, absentee balloting, early voting, residency requirements. VOTE41 also includes candidate information and a nationwide polling place locator.
Fair Elections’ Campus Vote Project addresses barriers to student voting and registration: http://www.campusvoteproject.org/sites/default/files/webfm/pdfs/Barriers-to-Student-Registration-and-Voting.pdf.
Fair Elections Legal Network student guides: www.fairelectionsnetwork.com/resources/student-voting. Each state-specific guide includes FAQs on some of the myths that intimidate students. It includes some other reports as well, including Mobilizing the Millenial Generation for 2012.
Fair Elections Legal Network GOTV Guides: http://www.fairelectionsnetwork.com/resources. If you click on a couple of states, you’ll see that we address in the GOTV guides what the eligibility is for voters who move since they registered to vote and did not update their addresses before. “We really stress that schools can play an essential role in giving students the information they need to update their addresses before Election Day to avoid the types of challenges that occurred at Vassar.”
Long Distance Voter provides a comprehensive resource on how to vote absentee in any state (plus DC) at LongDistanceVoter.org
The Obama 2012 campaign has its own voter assistance site, gottavote.org. The site provides information on how to register, what to bring to the polls, important deadlines.
