^ Oh please. At the primaries, I watched several people of all ages (mostly elderly though) fill out their ballots incorrectly and have to do it again.
We should make it as easy as possible to vote. They should ALL have pre-paid postage. The cost or obtainment of a stamp is a stupid barrier to voting.
The article says they don’t know where to buy stamps - not that they cannot afford them. And these are not elderly, but college students who have successfully completed application process and took standard tests (hopefully unassisted). If they cannot figure out where to buy stamps, how can they complete their coursework?
Where I grew up, voting was compulsory, so the ballots and voting urns were delivered to voters’ doors - this made voting as easy as possible, with voter turnover rate over 98% There was also only one name on the ballot to make the choice real easy.
To make my point clear, it’s a privilege to freely exercise a voting right in a democratic society without being afraid of punishments or other personal consequences; people fought and made sacrifices for this right. That’s why we can and should make voting as easy as possible for those voters who have physical or financial limits (affording to buy a stamp, transportation, disabled, elderly etc). But not for privileged students of a competitive college who do not vote by choice, not by necessity, due to being lazy, unorganized or simply do not care.
Absentee ballots can have complex rules. In the state I used to live in, the voter had to have their ballot envelope either signed by another registered voter from their state or by a notary. My kid across the country at college fortunately knew another student voting from her state, so they witnessed for each other. But I’m sure that is not always the case. This seems like a ridiculous rule to me.
If you’re too stupid to figure out how to buy a stamp, you’re too stupid to have a say in how your government is run.
My kid just voted in the state where she goes to college.
There is a major youth voter registration drive next week, as Tuesday is National Voter Registration Day. Many nonprofits, and the Mayors of 150 cities, have pledged resources to register youth voters that day, so hopefully things will improve. In some state, youth voter registration is skyrocketing; now we just need to encourage them to vote
@romanigypsyeyes It’s real. Really. I have a college student. This issue has been discussed ad nauseum among parents of college kids. But this article did not go far enough. Even if they manage to get their hands on a stamp, they do not know how to MAIL a letter. Yes, you read that right. One of my friends told me her daughter brought her outgoing mail home to mail. Hopefully it wasn’t anything time-sensitive.
I believe it. There has been a big change in the use of USPS in the last 10 years.
Probably because so many people do everything online. Young people haven’t seen anyone buy stamps or mail letters much. That doesn’t make them stupid.
We don’t pay everything online, we still mail checks in to pay most bills. Since our kids come grocery shopping with us most weekends, where we buy the stamps and mail most of the bills once a week, mine know how to do it. They have a lot of friends who never run those kinds of errands with parents though, so I could see some not knowing.
There are many things that college students (and younger) know how to do that I don’t. It’s a matter of age and technology. Our kids laugh at us about not understanding technology the same way we laughed at our parents. Why should kids know where to buy a stamp? They likely have never needed to buy one. I couldn’t even tell you the last time I bought a stamp.
I agree with @romanigypsyeyes. It’s an excuse for apathy and laziness. They can google the information if they were motivated todo so. They do know how to google. They’re not dumb. They just don’t care enough to prioritize it, unfortunately.
The “too stupid to vote” trope has been used to justify (and continues to justify) the disenfranchisement of people of color, young people, the poor, the disabled, etc.
Having a lack of resources and knowledge doesn’t negate your citizenship and civic rights.
I will give some kids the benefit of the doubt. First, they are living out-of-state in a new city and may not have ventured off of campus much. Second, they may not have transportation to go purchase stamps. Third, the process to vote in some states is too slow and cumbersome with early deadlines. Most adults don’t vote, and I know many adults who do vote who never, ever study an issue or candidate - they just vote straight party without any thought at all. I’m not sure I like that group voting either, but it’s their right. Stamps are a pain to go purchase where I live, as well!
To call them stupid is unwarranted. My student had plenty of experience mailing packages and had stamps in her possession. Just very little experience sending first class mail as her grandparents all are deceased so no thank you snail mail. All other bill payments are online. She considered her vote to be valuable. She called me to verify before putting it in a mailbox that one stamp would send it across the city and only one stamp would send it across the country.
I also don’t think it’s worthy of saying that student isn’t fit to vote. That just seems like another reason to put down the younger generation rather than trying to see the world through their lens and then figuring out how to address the obstacles/generational differences/changes that come with technology. I think this article narrowly focused on “don’t know how to purchase”, but there is also the issue that for many students, it’s not easy to run errands that require them to be “in town”. (Are they really going to purchase just one stamp online??) Last week our newspaper did a story about how many of the students who attend the numerous colleges and universities in our area don’t vote because the polling location is too far off campus, making it more difficult to figure out when and how they will get there. Similar issue, the kids are stuck in their campus bubble. We adults can lament and roll our eyes, or we can encourage them and help them figure it out if we are aware of the issues. Will bring stamps with me to Parents Week-end next week! 
When I mentioned this article to my DD, she reminded me when she had trouble getting a stamp (not for voting) when she was in a new city. She tried texting me and I made a couple suggestions but when she tried, no one seemed to carry them. She tried googling but couldn’t find anything except the post office that was a 20 minute walk away. She ended up taking the walk because she really needed the stamp, but I could see where someone else might give up.
Kids so rarely need a stamp, and when they were home, they knew where to find them—in my cabinet.
I’m pretty sure it was on this board a few years ago that someone never got the birthday card her college kid tried to send. When the post office clerk asked what stamp he wanted he asked for the cheapest one. That was before forever stamps. He put only one cent on it.
If they can’t figure out where to buy a stamp, it might be a good thing that they are not voting. PLEASE.
We have mail in voting for a lot of elections here. They have big boxes at the voting places (rec centers, city hall, etc) and drop off boxes at the light rail and bus stations. Very convenient, no postage needed.
BUT, you have to figure out how to load the ballot into the envelop, and you have to sign the outside of the envelope. If you do mail it, you need extra postage. They constantly do news stories about how many ballots are returned or tossed because there wasn’t enough postage on the envelope.
This year in the primary they let those registered as independents vote, but they received both the republican ballot and the democratic ballot, and they had to choose ONE. If they mailed both back in, and many did, those were disallowed too.