Why "Just Voting" Isn’t That Easy for Out-of-State College Students

Rewire News Group recently ran a story about the barriers students face when they attend college outside of their home states and try to vote on campus. In "Why 'Just Voting' Isn’t That Easy for Out-of-State College Students," Caroline Smith, programs director at the student voting rights advocacy nonprofit Andrew Goodman Foundation, references Bard College's successful legal battle to establish a polling site on campus. 

“We’ve gotten into other legal battles, one of them being at Bard College in New York,” Smith said. “That legal battle happened over a decade and finally resulted in establishing a polling site on Bard’s campus, and then actually a law later on inspired by that win that mandated polling sites on campus in New York for campuses that have over 300 registered voters.”

The article also explains that while students who register at their campus address turn out to vote at higher rates, "early registration deadlines, strict voter identification requirements, and a lack of nearby polling stations discourage students from voting at their campus addresses and suppress the youth vote."

Read the article

Post Date: 08-07-2024