Suppressing College Student Votes

There's a compelling editorial in the New York Times about a trend that everyone in Ward 2, especially students, should care about.  Republicans in state legislatures are attempting to pass new requirements for state-issued identification in order to vote, and doing away with same-day registration.  Such a scheme was recently defeated at the polls in Maine, but this movement had successes in Kansas and Wisconsin.  A voter ID law in South Carolina has recently been blocked by the Justice Department.

It's clear that the stated goal of these bills - protecting against voter fraud - are not the real story.  Voter fraud is simply not a significant problem.  There are precious few real-life examples, and two high-profile (and strenuously litigated) statewide recounts have failed to turn up any major irregularities.

No, the real aim of these bills is, clearly, to suppress the sort of voters who tend to vote for Democrats and Greens, especially college students.

In Minnesota, all that stood between thousands of Ward 2 residents and disenfranchisement was Governor Dayton's veto.  If you're a student, or care about students being able to vote, please follow this issue and make sure your legislators know where you stand.