NY Times Editorial: Iowa’s Student Vote - "Students are rightly up in arms"

[Adelante]

College students are legally entitled to vote where they attend school. That makes perfect sense given that they often live in their college communities for four years or more and become eligible to vote for the first time while living there. But not everyone likes this arrangement, and political operatives often try to suppress the student vote. We recently got a glimpse of this process in Iowa, where the presidential caucuses are just weeks away.

Political campaigns and elected officials have used a variety of tactics over the years to keep students from voting. There are often too few voting machines, so lines stretch for hours. Sometimes, students are falsely told that they will lose financial aid, health care or even car insurance if they vote while attending school.

In Iowa, the suppression has been rhetorical. With Barack Obama’s campaign, in particular, urging students to come out for him, other campaigns have tried to put up roadblocks. Earlier this month, Hillary Clinton said during a campaign stop that the process should be reserved for “people who live here, people who pay taxes here.” Chris Dodd seemed to imply that people who were “paying out-of-state tuition” and participating in the process were somehow being deceptive and unfairly casting themselves as Iowan.

Students are rightly up in arms about these statements. The law in Iowa is crystal clear: students who attend school in the state are entitled to register to vote in the state as long they are not registered anywhere else. The two parties’ rules say registered voters may participate in caucuses in the precincts where they are registered. Students have the same right to do so as any other Iowan. But statements challenging their right to vote may intimidate some students into staying home.

Hammered by student groups, the candidates have reframed their statements. But the episode has left a bad taste in the mouths of many students and of the groups that have been working feverishly to bring more of them into the electoral process. Anything that undermines student voting is bad for politics and bad for the nation.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/15/opinion/15sat3.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

[1corona4u]

1. And, I just hope they know who they are voting for....

I was watching a video of some students, talking about who they were voting for, and most of them seemed to not know anything about the person they were voting for.(from all candidates-repub & dems alike) That's not very responsible if you ask me. The entire fate of this country may indeed be in their hands. If they truly know their candidate, and what they bring to the table, then I think it's great.

[Bullet1987]

2. Of course Clinton doesn't want students to caucus...

Because the majority of them will caucus for Obama.

[dkf]

4. And you think only students don't get to know who they are voting for?

I'd say this is the case for most of the country.

[1corona4u]

7. True, but since this topic was about students, that's what I was addressing...

[Adelante]

5. Were they Iowa or New Hampshire students?

I ask because students in those states impressed me in 2004 with their interest and knowledge of presidential politics.

[1corona4u]

8. Iowa...

Edit; I think...pretty sure...

[killbotfactory]

3. I thought republicans were the ones that like to suppress the vote

Or for that matter, start pointless wars and torture people.

But, sadly, it's just not so, as we can clearly see.

[MadBadger]

6. This thing really turns me off to Dodd and Clinton

I pay over 22,000 dollars a year to The University of Wisconsin, which is over 3 times as much as anybody who lives in this state. To me because of that price, its like I do pay taxes here.

[Captain Hilts]

9. Locals don't want military people voting either. As they're rarely permanent residents...

there's a logic to it.

[killbotfactory]

10. Oh, well then it's okay to disenfranchise people

It's not like they pay taxes or contribute to the local economy in any way, right?

[Captain Hilts]

14. Who says they should be "disenfranchised?" I used an absentee ballot.

But college students have a very low awareness of politics, in general, and the local politics where their universities are, in specific. I taught Poli Sci at a university and the students were clueless on who the reps, sens, etc. of Virginia were. They would not have been informed voters.

They're temporary residents that rarely earn enough to pay state income or property taxes.

In Canada, you always vote where you physically live and it created a lot of animosity to have the huge number of students from out of town voting.

[Adelante]

11. That's too bad

We're talking about rights here. Federal and state law guarantees this right to resident college students. They pay sales tax, many work at jobs and pay income tax, and live there 2/3 of the year, many paying rent and otherwise contributing to the economy. But the bottom line is they have a right to vote where they live at school, as long as they don't register in their hometowns as well.

[Captain Hilts]

15. Do you understand why locals might wish they voted absentee?

I taught political science at a VA university and the kids didn't have a clue about politics in VA.

[provis99]

17. I bet the students on average know more than the average Virginia yokel

[Captain Hilts]

24. No. The students didn't even know who the vice president and Chief justice were, AND,

what do you mean by "Virginia yokel"?

This weren't the boonies.

[tabasco]

20. What kind of bullshit logic is that, to which you refer?

You think someone has to be a lifetime resident somewhere to vote?

A GI generally spends four years at his post. That's permanent enough for the law.

I'm sure the locals appreciate the GI's money in the community and the jobs on-post, but you think it's "logical" for them to want to deny the GI's to vote there.

How surprising to see something this vile come from a Hillary supporter. Not.

[Jai4WKC08]

12. I'd like to see someone address the root problem

I don't think ANYONE seriously wants to keep students from voting. But they do want to make sure they don't vote more than once.

The way it stands now, anyone can walk into a caucus precinct and register right then and there. No pre-registration is required, and there's really not much requirement for proof of identity at the door. What's to keep someone from caucusing in Iowa, then returning to their home state to vote in a primary, or voting there by absentee ballot?

In a general election, everybody votes on the same day, and in most cases, voters have to register some period of time before election day which makes it a little bit harder to vote in multiple states.

If Iowa didn't insist on being earlier than every other state, and/or if they made a greater effort to check identity and residency documentation, there wouldn't be a problem with students, or any other temporary resident for that matter, participating in the caucus. As it is, students can still vote at home by absentee ballot -- as a member of the military, I voted absentee for years and never felt disenfranchised. So except for those few who live in caucus states and so can't be present for their own state's event (and I think there are only a couple this year) the student vote is hardly being suppressed.

[suston96]

13. Bingo!

I once determined that I could have voted in three states if I wanted to. But the penalty in my home state for voter fraud is losing the voting right for life. No thanks.

We need a national primary day followed by a short period of publicly financed campaigning and an entire week-end of voting in the general election.

And doing away with that idiotic electoral college!

[Captain Hilts]

16. Thank you. 30 yrs in military had my parents voting absentee and I did too when...

I moved to Canada.

I wasn't disenfranchised.

[ClarkUSA]

18. Funny how the Clintons et al never raised a fuss about this in 1996, 2000 and 2004, eh?

Hmmm.... then it was perfectly fine. Now it's a big "concern" all of a sudden.

The New York Times rightly calls BS.

[creeksneakers2]

19. NYT is right

And Obama isn't doing anything unethical by asking students to vote in Iowa. Obama is getting an unfair advantage though, and I can see why Hillary complains.

Obama has votes to spare in Illinois. So he wants students who live in Illinois but go to school in Iowa to caucus in Iowa. Obama also wants students who live in Iowa but go to school in Illinois to caucus in Iowa too.

I don't blame Obama for taking advantage of the situation, nor Hillary for being miffed about it.

[ElizabethDC]

21. HRC has info on her website that encourages all Iowa students to vote

A blog post by Emily Hawkins, Hillary's Director of Young Voter Outreach:

So I just ask you - whether you're in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, South Carolina, in one of the many states that will hold its primary or caucus on February 5th, in any other state, or for that matter a student studying abroad - join Hillary, and take part in this process. I'll be updating the blog with information relevant to each early state over the next critical weeks. Up first: Iowa!

The Iowa Secretary of State has a page to help college students vote and caucus in Iowa. Whether you're an Iowa Resident Attending College in Iowa, an Iowa Resident Attending College outside Iowa, or a Non-Iowa Resident Attending College in Iowa, this site will help you navigate the process.

Just in case you're wondering where Hillary stands on the issue.

[snowbear]

22. Nothing like flip-flopping on that position...

Way to go Terry McAwful and Company ---

[Perry Logan]

23. Quick reminder: the New York Times is enemy propaganda.