Student Voter Suppression Petition
Local election officials have denied college students all across the country the right to register to vote from their college address. These officials claim that campus addresses are not "permanent residences" and students have to vote by absentee ballot at their parent's address. Federal and state laws make it clear that students have the right to establish residency and vote where they go to school. However, in practice students face many legal obstacles that can ultimately discourage them from casting a vote.
An article in the May Rolling Stone magazine describes how many young people are losing their right to vote:
"Much as local registrars in the South once used poll taxes and literacy tests to deny the vote to black citizens, some county election officials now employ an intimidating mix of legal bullying and added paperwork to prevent civic-minded young people from casting ballots.
Federal and state courts have clearly established that students have the right to vote where they go to school, even if they live in a dorm. But interviews with college students, civil-rights attorneys, political strategists and legal experts reveal that election officials all over the country are erecting legal barriers to keep young voters from casting ballots."
What can you do about it? Send a message to local officials in charge of elections by signing this petition to end student voter suppression. This petition will be used on September 23 to target election officials in problem states that continue to deny students the right to vote.
9/23/2004
Dear Secretary of State:
As you know, voter turnout among young people has reached catastrophically low rates. Too often, the low voter turnout is taken as conclusive evidence that young people are not engaged in social or political change or don't care about their communities. Yet, young people are volunteering and protesting at higher numbers today than in previous generations. Many young people who want to vote are unable to do so because of legal or administrative obstacles.
In the last several months, a number of local elections officials throughout the country have attempted to impede the ability of students to register to vote in their college or university towns through intimidation, refusal to process registration forms, or local ordinances establishing next-to-impossible residency standards. If students cannot register the first time they attempt to vote, they will be less likely to participate in the future and politicians will continue to be unresponsive to their interests. The health of American democracy requires that our youngest voters become engaged in electoral politics.
I therefore urge you to take action to eliminate any unnecessary legal and/or administrative barriers that students in your state are facing in exercising their most basic right of citizenship. Specifically, I request that you:
1. Educate all election officials in your state that students have the right to vote in their college community if they consider it to be their primary residence, and that they should not be intimidated or discouraged from exercising this right.
2. Immediately remove from all website and policy statement, disinformation regarding the effect that voter registration has on a student's eligibility for financial aid, car and health insurance or tax dependency.
3. Require public colleges/universities (and encourage private colleges/universities) to provide a list of matriculated students to local elections officials, which is to be used to verify the residence of college students who wish to register in their college or university community.
4. Encourage students to participate in the electoral process as poll monitors and authorize student poll monitors to report election officials who disseminate false and/or intimidating information to student voters.
Thank you for your attention to this important matter.
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From the 2013 version of the site. Details, prices and links may be out of date, so check them against your own campus policies.