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Youth Voter Suppression Is a Policy Problem. We Need Policy Solutions. (from Democracy Docket)
https://www.democracydocket.com/opinion/youth-voter-suppression-is-a-policy-problem-we-need-policy-solutions/by Charlotte Hill 5-26-2023
On April 20, a leading voice in conservative politics said the quiet part out loud: Republicans should make it harder for young people to vote.
Cleta Mitchell is a lawyer and fundraiser who helped former President Donald Trump try to overturn the 2020 presidential election. At a private retreat in Nashville for donors to the Republican National Committee, she called for banning voting on college campuses, rolling back same-day voter registration and ending the practice in some states of automatically mailing ballots to registered voters. All of these are necessary, according to Mitchell’s presentation slides, for “any candidate other than a leftist to have a chance to WIN in 2024.”
This brazen campaign of youth voter suppression is morally wrong. It’s arguably unconstitutional under the 26th Amendment. And it is especially high-stakes in this political moment, when youth turnout has been credited for electing presidents and staving off red waves. Yet the political elites with the power to counteract this cynical youth suppression strategy are not prioritizing a key strategy for fighting back: adopting popular voting reforms that boost youth turnout.
SNIP
In state after state, conservative politicians are actively writing and passing laws that make it harder for young people to register and vote. Idaho now prohibits young people from using student IDs to register or vote. Ohio has long mandated that voters show a government-authorized photo ID to vote, but students are now not allowed to prove their legal residency using their student ID, official dormitory documents or utility bills. In Georgia, students at private colleges — including the vast majority of the state’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities — are barred from using their student IDs to vote, disproportionately disadvantaging youth of color. Proposed legislation in Texas would ban campus polling places entirely — a full-throated embrace of Mitchell’s strategy for a GOP victory in 2024.
SNIP
Cleta Mitchell is a lawyer and fundraiser who helped former President Donald Trump try to overturn the 2020 presidential election. At a private retreat in Nashville for donors to the Republican National Committee, she called for banning voting on college campuses, rolling back same-day voter registration and ending the practice in some states of automatically mailing ballots to registered voters. All of these are necessary, according to Mitchell’s presentation slides, for “any candidate other than a leftist to have a chance to WIN in 2024.”
This brazen campaign of youth voter suppression is morally wrong. It’s arguably unconstitutional under the 26th Amendment. And it is especially high-stakes in this political moment, when youth turnout has been credited for electing presidents and staving off red waves. Yet the political elites with the power to counteract this cynical youth suppression strategy are not prioritizing a key strategy for fighting back: adopting popular voting reforms that boost youth turnout.
SNIP
In state after state, conservative politicians are actively writing and passing laws that make it harder for young people to register and vote. Idaho now prohibits young people from using student IDs to register or vote. Ohio has long mandated that voters show a government-authorized photo ID to vote, but students are now not allowed to prove their legal residency using their student ID, official dormitory documents or utility bills. In Georgia, students at private colleges — including the vast majority of the state’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities — are barred from using their student IDs to vote, disproportionately disadvantaging youth of color. Proposed legislation in Texas would ban campus polling places entirely — a full-throated embrace of Mitchell’s strategy for a GOP victory in 2024.
SNIP
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