A Republican lawmaker in Indiana is pushing a bill that would ban students who pay out-of-state tuition from registering to vote where they go to college. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1979 that students have the right to do that, but an Indiana House committee debated the bill yesterday anyhow.
Check out this one account of how difficult it can be to qualify for in-state tuition -- and by extension, under this bill, the right to vote. From the Indianapolis Star:
The bar for getting in-state tuition can be very high, said Eddie VanBogaert. He was an Illinois resident who chose Purdue University. After four years as an undergraduate, paying out-of-state tuition, he stayed in West Lafayette, started a business and even got elected to the West Lafayette City Council -- and still had trouble convincing Purdue that he was eligible for in-state tuition for graduate school.
"I had to provide just a wild amount of (documents,)" VanBogaert said. "Leases, bank statements, W-2s, my car title, my driver's license, my business license. I even had the clerk-treasurer of West Lafayette write me a note."
That level of documentation, far more than other voters need to produce to register "shouldn't be the standard for fundamental voting rights," he said.
Indy Star reporter Mary Beth Schneider tweeted from the hearing yesterday that the bill's sponsor didn't realize that private colleges don't charge out-of-state tuition and said she would work on fixing that part of the bill. The sponsor also intends to amend the bill to make it constitutional -- which, given that its fundamental premise is unconstitutional, will be something to see.
(AP image: Lining up to vote at Purdue in November. Forty-two percent of Purdue students could not vote there under the new bill.)
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When will Republican lawmakers, at ANY level, stop thinking about how to gain more power and start thinking about how to serve the public they represent?
KJ, At the current rate....never. Truly sad as there are so few that aren't total nut-jobs...
They have their priorities.
At a guess, they will go to other priorities once there isn't any more power to get.
Republican college motto
cum tu in dubio sunt circumuentor
"When you are in doubt cheat"
Try as they might, but there is no way to make the bill constitutional because it involves a fundamental right to vote.
Alas, Mike, there is no Constitutional right to vote. The Supreme Court has said that if states grant the right to vote, it has to be done fairly - but left the word "fair" undefined. Before his illness, Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-IL) had been planning to introduce a law providing for national voter registration covering House, Senate and Presidential elections. But it never happened, enabling clowns in Indiana, Pennsylvania, etc., the freedom to deny freedom to others.
The right to vote is in the Constitution and by reason of the 14th Amendment those rights apply to state governments. Indiana cannot bar students from voting if they meet the 30 day residency requirement. Anything over 30 days will be struck down by federal courts in accordance with previous cases. If the students meet residency requirements and can prove they have residency then the state must allow them to vote. The proposed federal laws will govern federal elections but as an unwritten rule, whatever the feds do will be the minimal requirements for states and their elections.
Yet another example of why these power hungry, traitors to THE PEOPLE need to be voted out of public office!
Republican is a synonym for loser...
As always the intent is to get away with as much as possible. Even though this law is obviously unconstitutional, it will take time to get it repealed and even after that even more time to make sure that registrations aren't being thrown out. Conservatives will be encouraged to challenge all student registrations no matter the law because they know that state government isn't in the mood to stand up for voting rights. Voting rights organizations now have to battle the perception that students can't register, even if the law is overturned. No matter the outcome, student voting is reduced by dozens of non-point sources of suppressive influence.
Just another day in de facto vote suppression as unconstitutional laws are floated to signal a willingness to rig the system.
In America, Big Right - a term describing the congealed group of conservative gorp that includes the GOP, right wing no-think tanks such as AEI, lobbyists and other special interest groups, and a chunk of the news media - is terrified that people will vote. Because when there are unobstructed elections, a growing number of people are voting for Democrats.
It's not just in the US that the right wing goes to extraordinary lengths to skew the vote. In Canada, the ruling Conservative Party in Alberta is so concerned about polls showing the center-left New Democratic Party gaining popularity in the province, it is planning to redraw district lines - called "ridings" as in the British system - to make it more difficult for the NDP to win seats. (In Canada, unlike the US, so-called redistricting does not have to wait for a census to be done.)
Huh! Who knew that Alberta and Pennsylvania would have voter suppression in common?
PS ... If anyone on the techie side of Maddowblog reads this, for the past several weeks I've not been able to log in using my Facebook account. Messages sent to the overall site webmaster have gone unanswered and the problem persists. Anyone else having a similar issue? I know it's not my computer because it is two weeks old, and I don't have a problem using Facebook to log into other sites such as The New York Times.
They lost a generation of voters from the last election. In another decade or so, the whacky Repubs will be as popular as the communist party.
Bear in mind that the Communist Party is already more popular than Congress.
When the States start messing with people's Right to Vote like this, it is time for the Federal Government to put into place National Guidelines that ALL states must follow, to ensure Fair Treatment to all United States Citizens, NO MATTER what state we live in.
I am all for states having rights to Govern the needs of the state, but when it comes to the Voting Rights of Americans, we MUST have a National Rule of LAW, that makes it impossible for any State, to Impede that Right of a Citizen of the United States.
I do not know the legal terms or words needed to keep a state or nation from making it harder for anyone to vote .. but people smarter then Me sure could draft something that would allow ALL our citizens the same ability to vote no matter where we live in America.
A much bigger threat to Americans then having a style of gun or bullet magazine taken off the market, is when Our VOICE is silenced or made No Account by States thru suppression and watering down of our Vote ...
We need strong measures and SOON to insure One Voice One vote does not get washed down the River of political domination. No matter what party, or Who is President, This basic right needs to Stand True for all Time.
How on earth do we expect other people in the world to stand up for truth when ' We The People ', who are supposed to be the Caretakers of such Truth, let it be Trampled upon day after Day, with nobody stepping up to Fix it.
The problem is the person who promoted this idea years ago, Mitch Daniels is now the president of Purdue University. And our governor is the most "do-nothing" representative Indiana has ever had, Mike Pence. Just read this "Open Letter to Purdue People" from Daniels. You can see that he has every intention of taking away the rights and liberties of students and staff. http://www.purdue.edu/president/
I've been covering this at http://nonconstat.com/
This is in violation of the Indiana Constitution as well:
Article 2 Section 2 of the Indiana Constitution reads:
So no matter the Federal constitutional claims, there is even more reason to suspect this law would be struck down by the Courts.
Did not intend to double post
And once again, I'm appalled by my state's legislators. Don't worry; once the courts strike this down, the Republicans in our legislature will find some equally stupid bill with which to waste our time.
fear of the youth in Indiana and the power of the youth vote? Let's STARVE the FEAR.
Believe in the youth. Do something! Write in protest at least.