Republicans face setbacks in efforts to tighten voting laws on college campuses

Alarmed at young people increasingly proving to be a force for Democrats at the ballot box, Republican lawmakers in a number of states have attempted to create new obstacles to college student voting.

In Idaho, Republicans this month used their monopoly of power to ban student cards as a form of voter ID.

But so far this year, the new law in Idaho is one of the few successes for Republicans targeting young voters.

Attempts to bar out-of-state students from voting in their campus cities or to reverse pre-registration for teens have failed in New Hampshire and Virginia. Even in Texas, where 2019 legislation has closed early voting sites on many college campuses, a new proposal would scrap all college polling stations seems to have an uncertain future.

“When these ideas are first floated, people are appalled,” said Chad Dunn, the co-founder and legal director of the UCLA Voting Rights Project. But he cautioned that the lawmakers who sponsor such bills tend to bring them back again and again.

“Then, six, eight, ten years later, these terrible ideas become law,” he said.

Turnout in recent cycles has soared for young voters, who have been boosted by issues such as abortion, climate change and the Trump presidency.

They voted in rising numbers during the midterms last year Kansas And Michigan, both of which had referendums on abortion. And college students, who had long paid little attention to elections, emerged as a crucial voting bloc in the 2018 midterm elections.

But even with such acquisitions, Sean Morales-Doyle, director of the voting rights program for Brennan Center for Justicesaid there was still progress to be made.

“Their emergence is still much faster than that of their older counterparts,” said Mr. Morales-Doyle.

With the campaign for the 2024 presidential election underway, the battle for young voters has become even more important.

Of the 17 states that generally require voter ID, Idaho will join Texas and only four others — North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina and Tennessee — that won’t accept student IDs, according to the Voting Law Laba group that follows legislation.

Arizona and Wisconsin have rigid student ID rules that colleges and universities struggle to comply with, though some Wisconsin schools have been successful.

Proponents of such restrictions often say they are necessary to prevent voter fraud, even though instances of fraud are rare. Shortly after Idaho Republican Governor Brad Little signed into law the student card ban on March 15, two lawsuits were filed in state and federal court.

“The facts aren’t particularly convincing if you just try to go through all those voter suppression bills,” said Betsy McBride, the president of the League of Women Voters of Idaho, one of the plaintiffs in the state case, earlier signing the bill. of the account.

A fight over out-of-state students in New Hampshire

In New Hampshire, which has one of the highest percentages in the country of out-of-state students, GOP lawmakers introduced a bill this year That would have blocked voting access for those studentsbut it died in committee after failing to garner a single vote.

Nearly 59 percent of New Hampshire’s traditional college students came from out of state in 2020, according to the Institute for Democracy and Higher Education at Tufts.

The University of New Hampshire had opposed the legislation, while students and other critics had questioned its constitutionality.

The bill, which would have required students to show their in-state tuition statements when registering to vote, would have even barred New Hampshire residents from attending private schools like Dartmouth College, which has no in-state fee. said McKenzie St. Germain, the campaign manager for the New Hampshire Campaign for Voting Rights, a nonpartisan voting rights group.

Sandra Panek, one of the sponsors of the bill who died, said she would like to bring it back if she can get bipartisan support. “We want to encourage our young people to vote,” said Ms Panek, who regularly tweets about election conspiracy theories. But, she added, elections should reflect “those living in New Hampshire’s cities who ultimately bear the consequences of the election outcome.”

A Texas ban on on-campus polling has seen little progress

In Texas, the Republican legislature that introduced the bill eliminate all polling places on college campuses this year, Carrie Isaac mentioned security concerns and concerns about political violence.

Proponents of voting rights see a different motive.

“This is just the latest in a long line of attacks on youth voting rights in Texas,” said Claudia Yoli Ferla, executive director of MOVE Texas Action Fund, a nonpartisan group dedicated to empowering younger voters.

Ms. Isaac has also introduced similar legislation to abolish polling stations in primary and secondary schools. In an interview, she mentioned the May 2022 school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, in which a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers — an attack that had nothing to do with voting.

“Emotions are running very high,” said Ms. Isaac. Pollsters have complained about increasing threats to their lives. It’s just not beneficial, I think, to be around kids of all ages.”

The legislation has been referred to the House Elections Committee, but has yet to be heard in the legislature. Voting rights experts have expressed skepticism that the bill — one of dozens related to votes submitted for this session — would pass.

GOP voting restrictions clash in other states

In Virginia, a Republican failed in her attempt to repeal a state law get teens to register to vote from age 16 if they turn 18 in time for the general election. Part of a broader package of proposed election restrictions, the bill failed to gain traction in the GOP-controlled House, where it died without discussion in committee this year.

And in Wyoming, concerns about making voting harder for older people seem to have inadvertently helped younger voters. a GOP account that would have banned most college IDs from being used as voter identification was narrowly defeated in the state House because it would also have banned Medicare and Medicaid insurance cards as proof of identity at the polls, a provision Republican lawmakers feared would could be heavy for older people.

“I think we’re just hurting students and old people,” Dan Zwonitzer, a Republican lawmaker who voted against the bill, said during a debate in the House of Representatives in February.

In Ohio, for years not accepted student IDs to voteIn January, Republicans approved a broader photo ID requirement that also prohibits students from using college account statements or utility bills for voting purposes, as they had done in the past.

The Idaho law goes into effect in January. Scott Herndon and Tina Lambert, the sponsors of the bill in the Senate and House, did not respond to requests for comment, but Mr. Herndon said at a Feb. 24 hearing that student identification cards had lower vetting standards than those issued by the government.

“It’s not about voter fraud,” he said. “It’s just to make sure the people who show up to vote are who they say they are.”

Republicans argued that nearly 99 percent of Idaho residents had used their driver’s licenses to vote, but opponents of the bill pointed out that not all students have a driver’s license or passport — and there are fees associated with both.

Mae Roos, a senior at Borah High School in Boise, testified against the bill at a hearing on Feb. 10.

“If we are taught from the very beginning, when we first try to participate, that voting is an expensive process, a painstaking process, a process full of barriers, we become disillusioned with that great dream of our democracy,” said she. said Rose. “We’re starting to believe that our votes aren’t valued.”