New Hampshire Republicans Wrong to Attack College Student Voting

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This is infuriating. As a college student who's permanent residence is in another state but goes to college in New Hampshire, it greatly disheartens me that the legislatures of this country would try to prohibit me and my peers from voting in this state. Voting is our right, as legal adults. It is not something that can be taken away from us. I can speak for myself and many others when I say that most college students who register to vote are voting because they want to for a specific person, and for a specific reason. If we didn't want to vote, then we wouldn't register. We follow politics and we care about this future of this country as it affects us, or more specifically our generation. I truly hope that other citizens realize the importance of our vote, and the reason why we should be allowed to vote while in college. WE are the future of this country, we have rights to vote in this country, and I ask that someone sees the absurdity in this situation. Why else would I be on this website, reading a political article?

E.M of MA 7:05PM September 19, 2012

The amount of defensive commentary and attempts at brushing electoral "irregularities" under the rug just screams of a cover-up, of well-known fraudulent practice. EITHER vote absentee in your home town, or at the polls during college. The current system allows both, which is fraud but difficult to pursue and prosecute.

A simpler answer, which Democrats at all levels bristle at because it would eliminate the opportunity to defraud elections, is a national voter registration tied to social security # or a national identity number.

One person, one vote. not that hard.

trent of ME 2:39PM August 09, 2011

In my 50yrs of voting, I have voted for both parties.

But the Bush Administration woke me up.

2 Wars, no new taxes for it. 2001 and 2003 Bush Tax cuts,

Bush Prescription Plan, no way to pay for it. and expanding the Government,

at the end of 8yrs. and controlled both house from 2001-2006 this country

fell apart..........

I did not vote a republican into the Congress in 2010, and after the Republicans

started after the Middle Class, voting rights of College Students, Minorities,

killing EDUCATION, and the future of higher education. Now today's latest

Remember the round up of American Japan citizens and their families put them in camps. June 1954 of McCarthyism, by republicans........Now the Hatchet job on the American Muslims. Remember when Romney put into law his Mass. Health Care Bill. Republicans didn't attack it. This Pres. used a large majority of the Romney Bill to create National Health Care bill, and the Republicans are

attacking it.............So., NO I WON'T VOTE REPUBLICAN, COME UP WITH

JOBS!, MILLIONS OF JOBS AND NOT NO $8.00 JOBS.........REAL JOBS.........

THEY PROVED THEY COULDN'T IN 8YRS..........THEIR ATTACKING OR RIGHTS AS CITIZENS....REPUBLICANS WANT, ONE PARTY, ONE VOTE.........THAT'S CALLED A "THEOCRACY"........AND THE UNIONS ARE THE STEPPING STONE

ANY WAY YOU SPELL IT............BE WISE, LISTEN CLOSELY, AND VOTE

SHIRLEY MITCHEM of OH 8:31AM March 11, 2011

I hope against all that is being done, that we the people gather in mass against the evils and greed that have risen in the name of God. What corruption of christian principles!

anne eversmann of OH 12:36PM March 10, 2011

Although absentee ballots should always be counted, there have been situations where certain People groups, whether a political or racial demogrphic, have not had their ballots counted. I knowing this does happen I would not leave to chance this happening with my vote.

The housing market crash, legislation to eliminate unions, overtime pay, reducing teacher's salaries to 19K/yr, farms being taken away from farmers and given to be corporations, and voting rights is all part of a dynamic the republican party is using to eliminate the middle class. The result will be you working 70hrs/wk for a 19k/yr job and having no time to vote or money to support a political campaign. Your influence will be eliminated.

Big corporations traditionally ran presidential campaigns. During Barack's campaign large corporations gave him $20 million. In the past that was enough to secure their influence over a president. However, this last time we the people gave $480 million to Barack. Republican want to make sure that never happens again.

Jeremy Caldwell of OH 2:41PM March 09, 2011

Perhaps New Hampshire should consider returning the taxes paid by out of state dollars (parents of students) if it is going to limit students' right to vote on how the state is administered and revenues appropriated.

What a moron the NH House Speaker is. We can send our kids to war but we cannot allow them to vote. I'd like to drop his yellow rear end into the nearest warzone and see how he fares with his vast life experience!

kevink808 of FL 1:11PM March 09, 2011

When will the populace wake up and see where the Republican fundamentalists want to take this country. These people:

continue to attack the basic freedoms of Americans who don't agree with them

won't recognize science

won't tolerate any sexuality except a heterosexual one

will not recognize a separation of church and state

insist on creation over evolution

demand that women cannot have control over their own bodies

will resort to dirty tricks to control an election outcome

are probably the worst hypocrites of all

Sam Sharp of CA 10:15AM March 09, 2011

As has already been stated: this measure would only prevent the lazy and apathetic students from voting. But why does the other feel that out-of-state college students have an inherent right to vote in the state where thay attend college? Out of state Students do not typically have a vested interest in their college's state. What would be closer to an infringement of rights would be a situation where a significant, out of state, politically homogenous electorate made the difference in the direction a state's vote went. A state that is as closely divided as NH is particularly vulnerable to this situation.

Joseph R of SC 11:16PM March 08, 2011

Let's get real. Many college students are not going to register their vehicles and get driver's licenses in the states where they go to college. In some cases, their parents are paying their car notes, registration and insurance. So under the "factchecker" scenario, many college students would be forced to vote by absentee ballot in their home states because they would not have the "credentials" to vote in their school communities. That means some students would not vote at all. While lawmakers in some states are complaining about student participation in state and local elections in communities where they are not permanent citizens; the real focus of these changes is the national political realm. It's no coincidence that these restrictions are being proposed as the 2012 presidential election nears...and that young voters, particularly college students, were a strong force in President Obama's election the first time around. This is just a follow-up to the GOP attack on unions. But here's the rub; if you destroy the opposition (the Democratic base), you no longer have a democracy you have one-party (corporate) government, which is the true GOP/Koch agenda.... "I pledge allegiance to the corporation...and the unbridled profit for which it stands...one nation...under siege...irreversibly divided...with misery and injustice for the masses".

Janet of KS 9:33PM March 08, 2011

The changes sought at most will prohibit college students from voting twice. College students currently can vote in both their home state by absentee ballot and the state of their college. That makes no sense and in fact some college students have voted for a presidential candidate more than once via this method though they are not supposed to. Others can't qualify as residents of more than one state and thus vote in the elections of multiple states so why should college students? Unless College students change their state residency then they should not be able to vote in an election. The proposal that is hysterically being attacked as taking away their voting rights completely will in fact simply require them to vote in their home state by absentee ballot or in the state they go to school if they change residency to that location.

I went to College and saw firsthand how groups particularly liberal groups got students to vote in local elections that we knew nothing about and as transients had no right to get invovled in anyway since we would not be there long to see the harm we did by our voting. That kind of garbabge needs to end. All states should wise up and require college students to follow the same rules as everyone else and just vote by absentee ballot in their home state not qualify to vote as well in a state where they are not residents.

John P of NJ 5:19PM March 08, 2011

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Susan Milligan

Susan Milligan

Susan Milligan is a political and foreign affairs writer and contributed to a biography of the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, "Last Lion: The Fall and Rise of Ted Kennedy." Follow her on Twitter @MilliganSusan.

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