Sep 15 2009
Disenfranchising Student Voters through “Modernization”
When I’ve spoken to groups of University of Illinois students, I generally ask who is registered in Champaign County and who is registered at their “home”. It usually splits about half and half. As I heard about the proposal to “modernize” our voter registration system, I contemplated its impact on students. My research shows that it will cause about half the students to be disenfranchised.
My sample is small, but I think representative. I used the University of Illinois Student Senate. I was able to find 33 voters among the Senators. Some names I was not able to locate in the statewide voter file or in the Champaign County voter file. They may be registered in another state or may be noncitizens.
Of the 33 identified, 16 were registered and voted in other counties. 17 were registered and voted in Champaign County. Under the “modern” program, those 16 students registered from what I presume to be their “home” address will have their registration switched, automatically, to their University address. Their right to vote in the district they live in, perhaps intend to stay in, serve their community in, etc. will be taken away in the name of modernization. Some of these people will lose their right to vote for friends and family. Some who are registered in other states might lose their “swing” voter status. (If you were a resident of Virginia, going to an out of state school, don’t you think you’d want to vote in Virginia?)
Don’t forget, this update is “conveniently” done without the knowledge of the voter. Can you imagine registering from your home, coming down to the University, mailing in your absentee request, and then finding out that, unbeknownst to you, your registration in your home has been cancelled. Provisional voting for most is not going to be allowed through the mail. So you’re stuck voting where you don’t want to vote, on races you may have little interest in, all because someone presumed you to be too lazy or irresponsible to do the relatively simple task of keeping your registration up to date.
We’ve done a number of things to ease the registration process. And we’ll continue to pursue more ways to make it easier for people to register to vote. But no steps should be taken to increase convenience when it results in the disenfranchisement of others.
Mark, thanks for that. Good point since college students already have trouble getting to vote.
In a related subject, what do you think of the latest election reform, that of “pre-registration” for 17 year olds as soon as they turn 17? This goes beyond registering 17 year olds who will turn 18 in the next primary or election.
Please don’t get me wrong, I want to enfranchise the youth, but some of these kids will move when they turn 18, leaving town for school or military etc. What happens once they are registered and if they don’t feel like voting?
What happens to these pre-registration forms?
Voter registration modernization, soundly implemented, will not disenfranchise student voters or anyone else. Under a system of voter registration modernization, other government agencies that maintain records of eligible citizens would transmit new records to election authorities for automatic voter registration and voter record updates. For agencies that do not already collect all the information needed for voter registration, there are two options: either afford citizens the opportunity to provide that information when they deal with the agency, or ask election officials to collect the missing information before completing the registration process. Under no circumstances would records be added to or modified on the voter rolls unless and until election officials obtain the correct information.
This holds true for colleges and universities as well. The vast majority of colleges and universities offer online class registration and store citizenship information for their students. Those educational institutions can easily add a question to their online class registration form asking students to record their address for voting purposes, and providing them an opportunity to opt out of voter registration. That information, along with the affirmation of citizenship and the other basic identifying information for voter registration, can be electronically transmitted to elections authorities for automatic registration during the school year. Such a mechanism will ensure that students are registered to vote at the correct address. For the small number of colleges and universities that do not offer online registration, voter registration information could be collected on paper forms, as is currently mandated by the Higher Education Act (HEA), and transmitted to the appropriate election authorities.
In short, there is nothing about voter registration modernization that requires students to be registered at their school addresses, rather than their original addresses, or vice versa.
In the unfortunate event that errors are made, a proper system of voter registration modernization would include various mechanisms to correct them. A secure automated Internet and telephone portal for voters to check their registration information would enable them to catch errors and submit corrections. An Election Day correction procedure would catch any remaining errors or omissions.
Advocates for modernizing the registration system seek expand the franchise, improve the accuracy of the voter rolls, and reduce waste and cost in election management. We hope to work with you in Champaign County to ensure that any modernization effort benefits all.
For more information, please contact the Brennan Center or to visit our website (www.brennancenter.org).
A simple example makes my point. A student comes to the University of Illinois in August and decides to register to vote, either through the University or with a student group. The student believes he will be eligible to vote in the February 2nd primary election in 2010.
He then goes home for Christmas break on December 15th. He goes to the driver’s license facility (maybe his parents moved, driver’s license expired, or he turned 21). He gets his new license and walks out, not realizing that the “modern” system of registration has taken his information and sent it to his local county clerk to register him in his home county. Upon registering in the other county, they find his name in our local database and send us a cancellation notice. He shows up to vote on election day in Champaign only to discover that his name has been removed from the rolls.
That is the type of disenfranchisement that will be commonplace when things become automatic.
What I am seeing here is the example of modernization. Well somebody said it could be a double edged sword. These updates will serve a lot purpose like finding where the voters live and their whereabouts. Times like this require us to pull our socks and update all the information we have. But, civil liberty is a thing that we must have in mind. Constitution provides the right to vote. If some modernization programs upsets the right to vote or disenfranchise voters then the law makers and Government must to something to stop this and find an alternative.