Second Ward, Minneapolis

This is a public policy forum that was established in 2006 by Minneapolis Second Ward (Green) City Council Member Cam Gordon and his policy aide Robin Garwood to share what they were working on and what life in City Hall was like. After serving 4 terms Cam lost his relection in 2021 but has continued to be involved in local politics and to use this forum to report and share his perspective on public policy. Please feel free to comment on posts, within certain ground rules.

Monday, January 02, 2012

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.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home