The saying “If you don’t use it, you lose it” does not only apply to exercise and health. Recently, it has become applicable to segments of the voting population. Groups known to not vote and those who vote overwhelmingly for Democrats are under fire from Republicans across the country. From New Hampshire to Florida, the newly elected Republicans have decided to ignore creating an environment for sustainable economic growth and progress and have focused instead on voter marginalization.
In New Hampshire, Republican legislators created a bill that would disenfranchise college students from voting. The bill would “permit students to vote in their college towns only if they or their parents had previously established permanent residency there,” claiming it would decrease voter fraud. The bill would disenfranchise students from their place of residence and cause the influence of colleges to diminish significantly on a statewide as well as national level, given New Hampshire’s swing state status as home to the nation’s first primary. The best part of the entire movement in New Hampshire had to be when Republican House Speaker William O’Brien did something rare for a politician and spoke what he truly felt. O’Brien referred to the college students as “foolish” at a prior Tea Party gathering and at another time said, “Voting as a liberal. That’s what kids do. Students lack life experience; they just vote their feelings.”
It’s clear to see from the Speaker himself that the whole point of the bill was to disenfranchise groups that are most likely to support Democrats rather than combat voter fraud.
In the states of Wisconsin, Missouri, Nebraska, Iowa, North Carolina and Maine, legislatures are aiming to restrict student turnout as well. The states want to make student IDs from private and state colleges an unacceptable form of voter identification. The Republicans in these states have not cited any particular reason for the changes. However, it’s clear that the motion is an outright assault to young voters and aims to influence election outcomes.
Much closer to home, Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi and Gov. Rick Scott have decided to repeal the April 2007 reform re-enfranchising nonviolent ex-felons who did their appropriate time. Bondi believes these individuals should wait an additional seven years after they are released before they are even considered to regain their suffrage. Florida would be the only one of three states to deny voting rights to former nonviolent felons if Bondi’s plans go into effect. The system requires that individuals pay restitution and only then, after case-by-case hearings chaired by the governor and cabinet sitting as the clemency board, can an individual’s voting rights be re-instated. Basically, only the governor’s cabinet can approve individuals’ ability to vote again or decide that they will be disenfranchised for life. Before the streamlining and reduction of bureaucratic measures, the waiting list for all these hearings was well over 100,000. Bondi’s measure would prevent the reintegration of these individuals and prevent them from becoming contributing members of society solely for immediate political gain. She also contradicts the Republican ideals of having a smaller and more efficient government.
Ultimately, it appears that the newly elected Republican legislatures nationwide are more interested in suppressing entire segments of the voting population. They’re increasing bureaucratic measures to combat certain demographics instead of focusing on job growth, economic prosperity and the other affairs they were supposedly elected to perform.
Chad Mohammed is a second-year chemical engineering major. His column appears on Thursday.
