March 5, 2008
Ohio Students Work Around Voter-ID Law
Students often have trouble registering to vote — or voting — where they are enrolled in college. For yesterday’s presidential primary in Ohio, many students devised creative ways to cast their ballots while still complying with the state’s voter-ID law.
“We were really pushing to get people to do absentee voting,” said Namrata Kolachalam, a senior at Oberlin College. Ohio law requires voters to bring government-issued identification or a utility bill to the polls, but such proof of residence is not required to vote absentee.
In 2006, because of the voter-ID law, many students in Ohio had to vote provisionally, Ms. Kolachalam said. This year groups at Oberlin and Kenyon College decided absentee ballots were a better option.
“It’s the easiest way to avoid the ridiculously backwards law,” said Matthew Segal, a senior at Kenyon and executive director of the national Student Association for Voter Empowerment. Mr. Segal is lobbying state officials for a more inclusive law — allowing, for example, private-college IDs — in time for the general election.
Meanwhile, Oberlin had another solution. The college issued students what Ms. Kolachalam called a “fake utility bill” — a statement of telephone and Internet services marked with their dormitory addresses — for them to present at the polls. The local board of elections had said it would accept the document.
Nearly 480,000 19-to-29-year-olds voted in Ohio’s primary, an increase of 84 percent over the year 2000, according to the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement. In Texas the turnout for that same population increased by 260 percent.
Sara Lipka | Posted on Wednesday March 5, 2008 | PermalinkComments
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What next, Oberlin, fake passports? Medical certs? Great move.
— jed Mar 5, 04:42 PM #
I am a little bit surprised that a large percentage of college students do not have a driver’s license. I also have never understood why showing ID is a problem. I have to show a photo ID to get on an airplane or to pick up tickets at the will-call window. I have to show photo ID to buy certain cold medicines, and usually have to show photo ID to pay for something with a check. I don’t believe it’s as much of a problem as people make it out to be – I think they just need a cause, and this is what they’ve picked.
— Deborah Mar 5, 05:09 PM #
Unfortunately, by allowing students to circumvent laws regarding voter registration, we are teaching them how to fraud the system.
Even more unfortunate are the poor residents of communities such as Kenyon and Oberlin. These are small college towns with high taxes due in part to undue influence from the student voters who tend to negate any no votes by permanent residents by voting in most tax levies for schools and such. In addition to voting in taxes that they will never pay for or feel the pinch of, the student vote has a significant impact as well on elected officials from the City Council to School Board to the local judge.
Students who are not permanent residents, do not pay or even file taxes in the jurisdiction, do not have local ties such as a driver’s license with their college address or a car registration at same, should not be given an end run around voter registration laws. It is a travesty that they get by with voting in taxes and elected officials while not facing the repercussions of same. College property is tax exempt, therefore, room and board for students is not impacted by the increased property taxes that they may vote in for city residents.
Shame on Oberlin College and Kenyon College for supporting this travesty! Students can and should apply to vote absentee in the locale they consider their permanent residence…not their dorm room address! I’m certain this fraud will not improve town gown relations in either locale.
— Johanna Mar 5, 09:09 PM #
This doesn’t say anything about what Oberlin should or should not do. It just shows how ridiculously easy it is to vote even when you’re not entitled to. The voting system is more fraudproof in North Korea than it is in the US!
— peter Mar 6, 05:05 AM #
In response to post 2, the Ohio law requires a valid and current driver’s license. Colleges often allow students to have a permeanant address and a college address. If your address on your license is not current for your local voting precinct, you’re not allowed to vote.
— ACR Mar 6, 09:23 AM #
In response to #3, Johanna:
College students do pay taxes in the town and state. They own property and pay taxes on it, they work jobs locally to supplement their income and taxes are also taken out of their paychecks. The fact that anyone would argue the validity of a student’s right to vote is appalling, and this very disenfranchisement is what many would consider fraud itself.
Additionally, considering that the majority of students spend a minimum of 9 months out of the year in their dorm room addresses, I’m not sure how that doesn’t qualify their dorm room as their permanent residence. If they spend little to no time in what you call their “permanent residence” (the place they came from before going to college in Ohio), how does that qualify them to vote there? They do not live there, their parents do. They do not work there, or go to school there, or have any up-to-date knowledge of the local economy and issues.
Having a drivers license or owning property should not be tantamount to the right to vote. We’re not talking about illegal immigrants trying to defile the system here, nor are we talking about actual voter fraud involving ballot manipulation, voting more than once, or anything else illegal. We’re talking about U.S. citizens being flatly denied the right to vote. The villians here are not the students trying to correct this injustice; the real problem lies in the state of Ohio denying them their fundamental rights as citizens.
These students should be commended for trying to increase civic participation among members of their own generation, not chastised.
— Amy Mar 7, 11:30 AM #
In response to #3 — I am an Ohio attorney who has worked for years to increase voter participation on many levels, a Gambier resident, and my son attends Oberlin. So I know personally far more about the facts that you do.
First and foremost, residence in Ohio is defined as domicile (physical presence) with intent to remain indefinitely. This has been interpreted by the Courts as meaning exactly what it says — a person has an intention to remain “indefinitely” it he or she does not know precisely when they are leaving. There is no functional, practical, moral, ethical or legal distinction between the Kenyon and Oberlin students knowing when they are leaving (i.e., when they will graduate, transfer or flunk out) or a faculty or staff person on a one or two year contract which may or may not be renewed. Yet you would not object to the faculty or staff person voting, would you?
Second, Kenyon and Oberlin students do pay taxes, in the form of local and state income taxes on their employment here in Ohio. There is no property tax for municipal services in Gambier. I do not know the status of Oberlin local taxes. In addition, as an economist I also know that the other local taxes (school, business, etc.) are built in to the price of all goods and services purchased, so again, students, like all other Gambier and Oberlin residents, pay local taxes to support state and local services.
Third, many students have become active in state and local legislative campaigns, and have educated themselves concerning the issues. Many students, however, do not choose to vote in the local and statewide elections, just like many one or two year faculty and staff members, and I certainly respect their judgment.
Fourth, students at Kenyon College (and other local residents, including me) waited up to 14 hours to vote in the November, 2004 election, many voting after they knew that there votes were probably meaningless statewide. Bumper stickers later that year and in 2005 proclaimed Gambier as the “Birthplace of Democracy” due to their amazing loyalty to the process.
Fifth, all the media and the “experts” constantly whine about and bemoan the “lazy young voters” who historically have not voted in the same percentages as their elders. Yet you would make it more difficult and troublesome for them to vote.
In conclusion, please make sure that you know the facts before you comment upon Kenyon and Oberlin.
— John Ryerson Mar 9, 02:29 PM #