The Student Vote Is Surging. So Are Efforts to Suppress It.

[Rasulis]

The Student Vote Is Surging. So Are Efforts to Suppress It.

At Austin Community College, civics is an unwritten part of the curriculum — so much so that for years the school has tapped its own funds to set up temporary early-voting sites on nine of its 11 campuses.

No more, however. This spring, the Texas Legislature outlawed polling places that did not stay open for the entire 12-day early-voting period. When the state’s elections take place in three weeks, those nine sites — which logged many of the nearly 14,000 ballots that full-time students cast last year — will be shuttered. So will six campus polling places at colleges in Fort Worth, two in Brownsville, on the Mexico border, and other polling places at schools statewide.

The story at Austin Community College is but one example of a political drama playing out nationwide: After decades of treating elections as an afterthought, college students have begun voting in force.

Their turnout in the 2018 midterms — 40.3 percent of 10 million students tracked by Tufts University’s Institute for Democracy & Higher Education — was more than double the rate in the 2014 midterms, easily exceeding an already robust increase in national turnout. Energized by issues like climate change and the Trump presidency, students have suddenly emerged as a potentially crucial voting bloc in the 2020 general election.

And almost as suddenly, Republican politicians around the country are throwing up roadblocks between students and voting booths.
Not coincidentally, the barriers are rising fastest in political battlegrounds and places like Texas where one-party control is eroding. Students lean strongly Democratic: In a March poll by the Institute of Politics at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, 45 percent of college students ages 18-24 identified as Democrats, compared to 29 percent who called themselves independents and 24 percent Republicans.

Florida’s Republican secretary of state outlawed early-voting sites at state universities in 2014, only to see 60,000 voters cast on-campus ballots in 2018 after a federal court overturned the ban. This year, the State Legislature effectively reinstated it, slipping a clause into a new elections law that requires all early-voting sites to offer “sufficient non-permitted parking” — an amenity in short supply on densely packed campuses.

North Carolina Republicans enacted a voter ID law last year that recognized student identification cards as valid — but its requirements proved so cumbersome that major state universities were unable to comply. A later revision relaxed the rules, but much confusion remains, and fewer than half the state’s 180-plus accredited schools have sought to certify their IDs for voting.

Wisconsin Republicans also have imposed tough restrictions on using student IDs for voting purposes. The state requires poll workers to check signatures only on student IDs, although some schools issuing modern IDs that serve as debit cards and dorm room keys have removed signatures, which they consider a security risk.

The law also requires that IDs used for voting expire within two years, while most college ID cards have four-year expiration dates. And even students with acceptable IDs must show proof of enrollment before being allowed to vote.

Senator Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, a Democrat, won election in 2016 by 1,017 votes over her Republican rival, Kelly Ayotte. Gov. Roy Cooper of North Carolina, a Democrat, won that year by about 10,000 votes in a state with nearly 500,000 undergraduates. And Donald J. Trump carried Wisconsin by fewer than 23,000 votes; the University of Wisconsin system alone enrolls more than 170,000 students.

Repeated studies have shown that making voting convenient improves turnout. And while it is difficult to say with certainty what causes turnout to decline, anecdotal evidence suggests that barriers to student voting have done just that. Nationwide, student turnout in the 2016 presidential election exceeded that of the 2012 presidential vote — but according to the Tufts institute, it fell sharply in Wisconsin, where the state’s voter ID law first applied to students that year.

Hurdles to student voting are hardly limited to politically competitive states. Most notably, the voter ID law in deeply Republican Tennessee does not recognize student ID cards as valid for voting, and legislators have removed out-of-state driver’s licenses from the list of valid identifications.

A Tennessee law requiring election officials to help register high school students is commonly skirted via a loophole, said Lisa Quigley, the top aide to Representative Jim Cooper, a Tennessee Democrat and voting rights advocate. And cities like Nashville and Knoxville, with large concentrations of college students, have no campus early voting polling places, she said.

Tennessee ranks 50th in voter turnout among the states and the District of Columbia. “We’re terrible at voting,” Ms. Quigley said. “And it’s intentional.”

Only Texas’ turnout is worse. And as in Tennessee, voting is particularly difficult for the young.

Texas law requires educators to distribute voter registration forms to high school students, but the requirement appears to be ignored by most of the state’s 3,700 secondary schools. And while many states allow students to preregister at 16 or 17, and even vote in primaries if they turn 18 by Election Day in November, Texas bars students from registering until two months before their 18th birthday, the nation’s most restrictive rule.

Not only do we have control of your economic centers. Now we also have control of the mind of your youngs.

Muahahahahaha! Ooops. Moustache twirling evil mode off.

On a more serious note. How long do they think they can keep doing this? When the dam finally break, the GOP would have alienated an entire generation.

[SirBeef]

The Student Vote Is Surging. So Are Efforts to Suppress It.



Not only do we have control of your economic centers. Now we also have control of the mind of your youngs.

Muahahahahaha! Ooops. Moustache twirling evil mode off.

On a more serious note. How long do they think they can keep doing this? When the dam finally break, the GOP would have alienated an entire generation.

When the Boomers that vote GOP die off in the next decade, the GOP will lose a large voting block that will less than likely to be replaced unless they change their platform for the better of people.

[Omega10]

When the Boomers that vote GOP die off in the next decade, the GOP will lose a large voting block that will less than likely to be replaced unless they change their platform for the better of people.

This gives the GOP a long time in their efforts to destroy America. I mean, at this point it HAS to be intentional. Ann Coulter really did say that the people of Houston deserved the flooding of their city that happened a few years ago... because they elected a lesbian mayor. And Trump really does seem to be cheering on the fires in California.

I hope the GOP goes away faster than that.

[SirBeef]

This gives the GOP a long time in their efforts to destroy America. I mean, at this point it HAS to be intentional. Ann Coulter really did say that the people of Houston deserved the flooding of their city that happened a few years ago... because they elected a lesbian mayor. And Trump really does seem to be cheering on the fires in California.

I hope the GOP goes away faster than that.

No offense, but it was a well known flood plain before expansion of the city and planners ignored it when continuing to sprawl the area. That's almost like living near a fault line, tornado alley, or the coast where hurricanes hit, then acting shocked when an earthquake, tornado, or hurricane strikes and destroys your home.

Not saying they deserved it as in screw then assholes, but I have less sympathy for those types of situations.

[Ghostpanther]

That's good more of them are voting. But they still lag behind the older generation rate and the young can and do in many cases, change as they become more mature. Also, the older generation is increasing in numbers.

[Milchshake]

When the Boomers that vote GOP die off in the next decade, the GOP will lose a large voting block that will less than likely to be replaced unless they change their platform for the better of people.

Assuming there's much left after the Boomers die out.

People maybe think The Trump appointing partisan hacks to gut and demolish government departments is a new thing. But it's honestly been tradition since Reagan.

1980 Reagan, being the first election where Boomers were plurality of the of the electorate.

Thinking about about it, everything GOP POTUS since Nixon has had major scandals involving corruption and abuse of power. Boomers have been totally ok with this.

[SirBeef]

Assuming there's much left after the Boomers die out.

People maybe think The Trump appointing partisan hacks to gut and demolish government departments is a new thing. But it's honestly been tradition since Reagan.

1980 Reagan, being the first election where Boomers were plurality of the of the electorate.

Thinking about about it, everything GOP POTUS since Nixon has had major scandals involving corruption and abuse of power. Boomers have been totally ok with this.

I don't have the statistics in front of me but I was under the impression they make up almost 30% of the GOP vote. If they cannot recruit enough young people the party basically becomes a regional party with no national scale.

That's not entirely true, boomers were the hippies and were extremely against the war, not really Nixon's thing, but they were mostly not OK with Nixon.

[Thelxi]

The voting process really needs to be cleaned up. It just shouldn't be this easy to corrupt the process and chip away at democracy. A brilliant mind should come up with a brilliant idea to streamline the process and make it robust against fraud, gerrymandering and whatever else.

[Rasulis]

That's good more of them are voting. But they still lag behind the older generation rate and the young can and do in many cases, change as they become more mature. Also, the older generation is increasing in numbers.

Actually multiple studies show that who was president and how he performed at the time a person turned 18 will pretty much decide one's voting pattern for the rest of that person's life.

For example, the segment of population that turned 18 during Roosevelt's presidency primarily voted Democrats.

The majority of boomers that turned 18 under Nixon voted Democrats.

The majority of those that turned 18 under Carter (considered a poor president) and Reagan (considered a great president) voted Republican.

Those that turned 18 under Clinton/Bush 2/Obama consistently voted Democrats.

Once a person is past his formative years (24), it takes a major moral conflict for that person to change his voting pattern.

[Endus]

Texas law requires educators to distribute voter registration forms to high school students, but the requirement appears to be ignored by most of the state’s 3,700 secondary schools.

This is the kind of shit that should see those school boards slapped with class-action lawsuits. What's the payout for barring someone's right to vote, $10k?

Per student who qualifies.

If that's 1000 students in a given board (not school, mind you), that's a $10 million penalty. Maybe that'll wake these fuckers up.

And frankly, I think $10k per is arguably way too low.

[Kokolums]

When the dam finally break, the GOP would have alienated an entire generation.

ive been hearing that all my life and its never happened.

What ACTUALLY happens is:

1. immigrants lean democrat
2. 2nd generation americans are extreme democrats
3. 3rd generation americans and beyond vote republican

we're already seeing 3rd generation latinos in california lean republican. the 2020s should be Peak Democrat in California. By the 2030s, the 3rd generation latino population in California will be large enough to start turning California red.

[Orbitus]

ive been hearing that all my life and its never happened.

What ACTUALLY happens is:

1. immigrants lean democrat
2. 2nd generation americans are extreme democrats
3. 3rd generation americans and beyond vote republican

we're already seeing 3rd generation latinos in california lean republican. the 2020s should be Peak Democrat in California. By the 2030s, the 3rd generation latino population in California will be large enough to start turning California red.

Let's see, no source, so your information is probably made up, and what does this actually have to do with the topic at hand? NOTHING.

[PC2]

ive been hearing that all my life and its never happened.

What ACTUALLY happens is:

1. immigrants lean democrat
2. 2nd generation americans are extreme democrats
3. 3rd generation americans and beyond vote republican

we're already seeing 3rd generation latinos in california lean republican. the 2020s should be Peak Democrat in California. By the 2030s, the 3rd generation latino population in California will be large enough to start turning California red.

None of that stuff matters though. Ultimately people vote based on societal performance and not based on those personal details. So how people vote in the future depends on the context, the economy, whose been in power for the last 4-8 years, etc.

[Fugus]

The voting process really needs to be cleaned up. It just shouldn't be this easy to corrupt the process and chip away at democracy. A brilliant mind should come up with a brilliant idea to streamline the process and make it robust against fraud, gerrymandering and whatever else.

That is actually not too hard, just one that they don't WANT to fix because it gives them power, even after the Republicans lose power, I doubt the Democrats will want to fix it and instead will want to entrench themselves further against future threats.

Gerrymandering: No person shall be involved in the process itself. Instead, the process will be done using open source software released to the public no later than 12 months before the redistricting is to take place. The districts shall be drawn using census information also given to the public no less than 12 months before it is to take place. A random seed number will be drawn "Lottery Style" and all states will use that same seed number and same software for all districts. Any attempts to alter the software, the census data, or seed generation will be considered a felony punishable by no less than 10 years in prison in no less than a medium security prison.

Fraud protection: Paper and pencil ballots, hand counted,in public with members of all parties watching.

Proper apportionment to prevent abuse in both Congress and Electoral Votes: Wyoming Option

Banning Winner-Take-All: And have votes awarded based on the proportion of the popular vote in that state.

Banning First-Past-The-Post: And have all elections based on ranked choice voting which allows for viable 3rd parties, removes the spoiler votes and even the need for primaries.

Banning money in politics to the point they can't even self fund let alone donations and ban politicians from working in the private sector after serving to prevent that corruption.


We have the tools to do it easily, the hard part is when you have those who benefit from it being broken also being the ones who actually make the decisions.

[Cthulhu 2020]

ive been hearing that all my life and its never happened.

What ACTUALLY happens is:

1. immigrants lean democrat
2. 2nd generation americans are extreme democrats
3. 3rd generation americans and beyond vote republican

we're already seeing 3rd generation latinos in california lean republican. the 2020s should be Peak Democrat in California. By the 2030s, the 3rd generation latino population in California will be large enough to start turning California red.

*BZZZZZZZZT*

https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tan...2018-midterms/

The only place where Latinos have a strong Republican presence is in Florida, where most of the Latinos are Cuban. I'm not sure if you're aware, but "Latinos" come from multiple different countries in the Caribbean and Central/South America. Cubans tend to strongly lean Republican, and it won't take some political scientist to tell you why.

The California Latino vote is one of the strongest for Democrats, and in California's 25th district, Latinos actually flipped it from Republican to Democrat with higher turnout. Cubans are also swinging more Democrat, as strong Latino turn out in 2018 also helped to flip two Florida districts from R to D.

[Xeones]

Basically the greatest generation begat the worst generation.

[Ghostpanther]

Actually multiple studies show that who was president and how he performed at the time a person turned 18 will pretty much decide one's voting pattern for the rest of that person's life.

For example, the segment of population that turned 18 during Roosevelt's presidency primarily voted Democrats.

The majority of boomers that turned 18 under Nixon voted Democrats.

The majority of those that turned 18 under Carter (considered a poor president) and Reagan (considered a great president) voted Republican.

Those that turned 18 under Clinton/Bush 2/Obama consistently voted Democrats.

Once a person is past his formative years (24), it takes a major moral conflict for that person to change his voting pattern.

What multiple studies? And what was the sample rate and who did them? I am cautious of studies, which can be inaccurate based on the preference of the outcome from those who did the studies. I mean, once we were told that eggs are bad for us and increase our level of cholesterol. And then red meat, which a recent study has shown, it is not as bad as claimed in the past. It is well known that people can and often do, change about things as they get older.

[PC2]

What multiple studies? And what was the sample rate and who did them? I am cautious of studies, which can be inaccurate based on the preference of the outcome from those who did the studies. I mean, once we were told that eggs are bad for us and increase our level of cholesterol. And then red meat, which a recent study has shown, it is not as bad as claimed in the past. It is well known that people can and often do, change about things as they get older.

Such a study is worthless anyways. Past trends don't dictate the future. There's nothing that says an 18 year old has to vote the same way forever, many people barely even know who they are at 18.

[Ghostpanther]

Such a study is worthless anyways. Past trends don't dictate the future. There's nothing that says an 18 year old has to vote the same way forever, many people barely even know who they are at 18.

Lol. Good point. And I agree.

[Blur4stuff]

People certainly do change as they get older. That doesn't translate to the younger, dem leaning generations switching to republican in 10-30 years, though. Not unless the GOP changes dramatically. A liberal 20 year old might get more conservative over the next few decades, but they aren't going to suddenly start hating gays and think that climate change is a Chinese hoax.

The republican party as we know it today is expiring quickly. It won't survive the next ten years.