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Speak Out
Should state lawmakers restrict your 26th Amendment right?
In the late ’60s and early ’70s, young people like yourself campaigned for the right to vote.
They argued that if the government could call on them at age 18 to serve in the military – to fight and possibly die for their country – then they had the maturity to participate in their government’s democratic process.
Now, lawmakers in some states are arguing the exact opposite: Young people are too immature and should have their voting rights restricted.
| The voting age was lowered to 18 with the passage of the 26th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1972. Some states even have laws allowing 17-year-olds to vote in primary elections if they will be 18 by the general election. |
A bill being debated in the New Hampshire legislature would prohibit college students from voting in their college town – unless they or their parents were permanent residents there. According to a Washington Post report, the bill’s sponsor, State Rep. Gregory Sorg, said in a speech that year-round residents in small towns are having their votes “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.”
Rep. Sorg’s views are shared by the state’s Speaker of the House, Rep. William O’Brien, who called young voters “foolish” and said students lacked “life experience” and “just vote their feelings.”
A second bill being considered in New Hampshire seeks to outlaw Election Day registration; according to the Post, O’Brien feels the practice “unleashes swarms of students on polling places, creating opportunities for fraud.”
For all the ire heard from the bills’ opponents, these proposals would not take away young people’s voting rights outright. They would just have to travel home to vote – or get an absentee ballot – and make sure they were registered well in advance of an election. (Which isn’t unusual – many states do not have Election Day registration, and instead set a registration deadline, usually about a month before each election.)
A bill in Wisconsin also targets college-age voters, but could prove to be more restrictive. It’s a spin on a voter ID law that would not allow voters to use school-issued student ID cards at their local polling place. The proposed law would allow driver’s licenses and passports as valid forms of ID, but opponents say that students who do not drive and do not have a passport would be unfairly disenfranchised.
In Wisconsin, lawmakers cite worries about voter fraud as a reason to make voting rules stricter. But critics feel the law is a transparent attempt to suppress voters who might vote against the Republican Party in power. Sam Polstein, a University of Wisconsin sophomore interviewed by the Post, said, “It's no coincidence that some of the groups being targeted and that would be most affected by the bill are more Democratic generally.”
Young Republicans agree, but they don’t favor the bill. The Post interviewed Richard Sunderland III, head of the College Republicans at Dartmouth College, who said the law “doesn’t help if the Republican Party wants to try to win over people in the 18-to-24 age range.”
What do you think?
Should state lawmakers impose voting restrictions on college-age students? Is it fair to make students vote in their hometown, rather than their college town? How about the voter ID law? Should Wisconsin accept student IDs as a valid form of identification for voting? Join the discussion!
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