<p>– New Hampshire’s new Republican state House speaker is pretty clear about what he thinks of college kids and how they vote. They’re “foolish,” Speaker William O’Brien said in a recent speech to a tea party group. Voting as a liberal. That’s what kids do," he added, his comments taped by a state Democratic Party staffer and posted on YouTube. Students lack “life experience,” and “they just vote their feelings.” –</p>
<p>[From another state rep] *Average taxpayers in college towns, he said, are having their vote…s “diluted or entirely canceled by those of a huge, largely monolithic demographic group . . . composed of people with a dearth of experience and a plethora of the easy self-confidence that only ignorance and inexperience can produce.”</p>
<p>Their “youthful idealism,” he added, “is focused on remaking the world, with themselves in charge, of course, rather than with the mundane humdrum of local government.”*</p>
<p>This is not only just occurring in New Hampshire. It’s probably occurring in a state legislature near you, as part of a nationwide strategy to curb the voting power of the college student voting bloc.</p>
<p>They also want to curb the voting power of the poor and the elderly, and especially the elderly poor, when they pass laws requiring that voters present photo ID - an impoverished little old lady living in public housing is not likely to have a driver’s license, and it is a significant burden for her to have to go somewhere to get a photo ID. Voila, another group disenfranchised. The system of showing up at the precinct to vote, putting your signature next to your name in the precinct book, and getting your ballot has worked for decades. There’s no good reason to change it, unless you want to keep certain types of people from voting, or at least make it a lot more difficult for them.</p>
<p>You’re taking one position on this rather than presenting the entire picture. They’re trying to lessen the current problems with voter fraud.</p>
<p>Students can vote. Let them vote via absentee ballot. If the student has previously established permanent residency in their college town, they’ll be able to vote in that town. What’s the big deal?</p>
<p>From the link you posted:</p>
<p>“One bill would permit students to vote in their college towns only if they or their parents had previously established permanent residency there - requiring all others to vote in the states or other New Hampshire towns they come from. Another bill would end Election Day registration, which O’Brien said unleashes swarms of students on polling places, creating opportunities for fraud.”</p>
<p>^What is so terrible about this idea? </p>
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<p>From the link you posted:</p>
<p>"Backers of the voting measures say they would bring fairness and restore confidence in a voting system vulnerable to fraud. Many states, for instance, do not require identification to vote. Measures being proposed in 32 states would add an ID requirement or proof of citizenship, according to an analysis by the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University.</p>
<p>“I want to know when I walk into the poll that they know I am who I say I am and that nobody else has said that they are me,” said North Carolina state Rep. Ric Killian (R), who is preparing to introduce legislation that would require voters to show a photo ID at the polls…"</p>
<p>^What’s so terrible about requiring specific identification before being able to cast your vote?</p>
<p>nysmile, a college student spends more time living in the area where they’re going to college than the area where their parents live. If the goal is to have informed voters, a student is going to be far more informed about mayoral candidates in their college town than back home. During my college years I knew a great deal about the local politics in Berkeley/Oakland/San Francisco, but next to nothing about who was even running in SoCal elections. I can’t imagine how Boston-bound D1 would be able to keep up with political news about California. </p>
<p>I have no idea about how a student goes about declaring permanent residency in a different state, but I’d worry about it causing issues with things like parent-paid health and car insurance. I’d also worry about the difficulties of declaring permanent residency when you’re highly transient. </p>
<p>As far as the “opportunities for fraud”: not the same thing as actual demonstrated fraud.</p>
<p>MA is a heavily one-sided political state (Scott Brown was an anomaly) so I don’t think that you have anything to worry about with your daughter.</p>
<p>I just checked the NH state government and the Republicans have commanding majorities, 75%, easily enough to override the Governor’s veto. The Republicans have been working on a lot of legislation undoing what the Democratic legislature has done over the past several years and it appears that there’s nothing to stop them. The state has always had a libertarian tilt and the Democrats simply overreached during their tenure.</p>
<p>“I can’t imagine how Boston-bound D1 would be able to keep up with political news about California”</p>
<p>Somehow, my D in MA was able to keep up with most of the stuff that was going on in her hometown. Internet? Twitter? Facebook? She was especially eager to vote for school-related measures and candidates in her hometown state, I guess that political activity was the fallout of the infamous WASL test :)</p>
<p>^correct bunsenburner, College students can easily keep up with the politics in their home state via internet. It’s also very easy to have a subscription to your local paper sent to the kids when they’re away at college.</p>
<p>Sure, the local paper can be read online. It does seem like an tremendous amount of reading and information to keep track of. We are a heavy news-consuming family (LA Times, WSJ, Sunday NYT, NPR, New Republic, and a lot of political blogs) and it’s enough to keep abreast of the current local/state elections plus national politics. If D1 can manage to add Boston and MA politics to the juggle, more power to her. It just doesn’t seem like a likely outcome. Perhaps I am selling her short. Now I’m curious to see if D1 does indeed keep up with home town politics, and I’m wondering what most students do.</p>
<p>Regardless, I’m still not getting why someone who spends at least 60% of their time living in State A must instead vote in State B.</p>
<p>I hated the town I went to high school in. My parent’s domicile is not my domicile. We’re above 18 – it’s bad enough that FAFSA treats us like kids until 26, now our political hometown has to be modelled on my parents too? All my best friends are in Virginia. McDonell’s close-minded policies affect my life everyday, and that of my friends, and that of my school. </p>
<p>I could care less what goes on in Maine, my parents’ state.</p>
<p>When you’re financially independent from your parents and you meet the requirements to declare the town/city of your choice as your permanent address, then you can register to vote in that voting district. Until then, simply request an absentee ballot from your permanent address locale if you want to vote.</p>
<p>Well, just down the road from C’ville the tables are somewhat turned. Liberty U students have taken to voting heavily in Lynchburg with enough strength to push the tide to the conservative side. There is talk that in the next re-apportionment one seat on the city council will basically be an LU seat.</p>
<p>My mom is a single parent migrant worker. My college town is my home, certainly more home than the other eight years of homes. </p>
<p>The measure is not aimed at fairness but at dissolving college town voting blocs – it makes no sense because college students as a whole form a voting community, a community’s whose political power is stronger united than disbanded.</p>
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I’m never ever living in Maine again. I detest that bloody state. Why should I be forced to vote in it?!</p>
<p>Financial independence isn’t a requirement for permanent residency or for voting. New Hampshire has no formal requirement for becoming a permanent resident–it looks like a lease is enough. Per the state:</p>
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<p>Are college students considered residents of their college state for census purposes?</p>
<p>Slithey Tove – Yes, they are. The instructions specifically said not to include students living away at school. I think they still asked about S and we got a call later from the Census Bureau to confirm that he was at college.</p>
<p>When I was at UGA in the 1980s the powers that be would not let students register to vote if they lived in the dorms. If you lived in an apartment and wanted to vote, your driver’s license had to have a local address. I was independent for FA and tax purposes, but because I was in the dorm, the only way I could vote was absentee through my parents’ address, even though I no longer lived there (and could not,in order to maintain independent status). My SIL was from Athens (where the UGA campus is located) and had to jump through all kinds of hoops before they’d let her register to vote, even though she’d lived there since she was ten.</p>
<p>While I don’t agree with limiting access to voting…</p>
<p>*Students lack “life experience,” and “they just vote their feelings.” –</p>
<p>*</p>
<p>This is sooooo true… Don’t we see it here on CC all the time? We have entire threads dealing with student who “veto” a school based on ridiculous reasons or insist on a dream school even if it’s not affordable or other issues that demonstrate that young people just don’t have the discernment that older adults have.</p>
<p>In my town, you have to be registered to vote. You also have to present id, proof of age, proof of citizenship and proof that you live in town. If you show up to register on election day, they look you up on the property tax rolls (not a lot of apartments in town). I’m not sure what the process is if you don’t own a place but I’d guess that they would ask for a utility bill, driver’s license, etc. Showing an out-of-state license probably wouldn’t work.</p>
<p>If you don’t have proof of the above, then you can sign an affidavit attesting to the requirements. I have no idea whether you are checked out. In the past, ID wasn’t required.</p>
<p>I guess Williamsburg was ahead of the game on this one. They were banning students from voting for a long time, because they are not “permanent residents.” This way they can have their rules like “no more than 3 unrelated people living in the same house, even if it has 6 bedrooms.”</p>
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<p>To be fair, so do older people. If people voted on issues, all of the tv ads wouldn’t be about how the other candidate is going to personally kill your children if she/he gets elected, and they might actually discuss important issues.</p>
<p>Bravo, soccerguy! I was about to say the same thing. College students DO have life experience, just not someone else’s life experience. College students can have chronic diseases or sick family members and care about health care. They may be considering serving in the military or already doing so or even be veterans, and thus keep themselves informed about defense issues. Gay college students may care about civil rights issues. Those with student loans should care about jobs and the economy. Those with loans/scholarships/financial aid may care about tax issues. Who is to say that someone’s longer life experience is any more valuable or valid that a college student’s?</p>
<p>Most proposals to make it easier or more difficult for some voters to register to vote or vote have fairly obvious partisan motivations, based on the assumed partisan alignment of the affected persons.</p>