Wanted to talk about college students voting because I’ve now gotten two emailed questions on it.
There are lots of unsubstantiated allegations made by media and conservatives about certain groups of voters, and, oddly enough, ALL of these unsubstantiated allegations are directed towards groups of voters who (mostly) vote for Democrats.
I live in Northwest Ohio. It’s cold. We have a large group of retired people who own homes in Ohio but actually spend very little time here, because they also live in Florida. However, every time we try to fund local public schools adequately (thankfully, our public schools are still truly public, and not taxpayer-supported “reformed” for-profits) we encounter huge pushback from part-time Ohio residents who object to paying property taxes. This is baffling because Ohio has a “homestead exemption” on property taxes that was enacted to protect seniors from large increases in property taxes. But I’m a lawyer, I know the residency rules and I think these anti-tax Tea Party seniors fit within the residency requirements for Ohio. I wouldn’t dream of accusing them of playing fast and loose with the rules by voting in Ohio, because that would be unfair and probably WRONG on the facts. Yet, nearly every day I read a fraud accusation leveled at some other group of voters, always young people, poor people, or racial or ethnic minorities. Weird how that works, isn’t it?
Quick: where does Mitt Romney “reside”? I would assume Massachusetts, because he once swore he was a Massachusetts resident, and there’s a transcript so he can’t deny it, but hell, I don’t know. He’s got property all over the country. For all I know he’s a California resident or a New Hampshire resident or a Utah resident. Maybe he “resides” where his money is, in Bermuda or the Caymans. I don’t plan to look, but you see my point. Investigations into “voter fraud” ALWAYS center on those voters media and conservatives apparently deem presumptively guilty of something or other.
For instance. Maine elected a Tea Party Governor who started a witch hunt into college student voters, because one of the conservative conspiracy theories around Obama’s election that the chumps bought into was that students voted twice:
After a two-month investigation into possible voter fraud by college students and noncitizens, Maine Secretary of State Charlie Summers said Wednesdayhis evidence showed that none of the students committed fraud and only one noncitizen voted in Maine.
The secretary’s investigation began in late July after Summers was challenged by Maine Republican Party Chairman Charlie Webster to look into the voting habits of 206 out-of-state students attending public Maine universities. Webster wanted to know whether those students had established residency in Maine or whether they voted twice — in Maine and in their home state.
I was so pleased to find out that our young people (they are our future) have much higher ethical standards than the bankers who are dunning them on student loans. None of them voted in two states. None of them broke the rules. Not one.
One of his findings was that 77 students were registered in Maine and in another state between 2008 and 2010.
Asked whether that constituted fraud, Summers replied: “It is fraud if they intentionally did that. But it’s very difficult to prove [intent].” Summers said he doesn’t intend to further investigate their intentions.
People move around a lot in these United States, and registering in one state and then moving to another state and registering there is not “fraud” and it is not unlawful. It’s called “moving and voting.” I have been legally registered to vote in the following states: Georgia, Minnesota, North Carolina, Indiana and Ohio because I had a misspent youth so moved all the time for any or no reason at all. I never once removed my name from the voter rolls in one state before registering in the new state, because NO ONE DOES THAT. I COULD have done that, there’s a process for doing that, but I didn’t. The key is I didn’t VOTE in two or three or four states.
Another finding revealed that five students voted in two different places in the same calendar year — once in primary and again in the general election — but none voted twice in the same election.
Asked whether voting twice in the same year in two separate states constituted fraud, Summers answered: “Technically, it’s not a violation of the law. I’m not sure exactly how patriotic it is.”
What he’s saying here is he launched a partisan witch hunt and turned up nothing, but he’s a weasel and a coward so he has to cast doubt on the students’ character by throwing in that “technically.” It is perfectly legal to reside in one state, vote in a primary, and then move to another and vote in a general. No “technically” about it. People do it all the time. Conservatives may be living in some 1860 world where you’re born and die on the same patch of ground but normal people move from state to state whenever the urge hits them, and they don’t need to ask permission of the head of the Maine Republican Party. Liberty, baby. Move. Feel free. You don’t lose your right to vote. You may be the subject of a witch hunt and some harassment if you choose to move to a state governed by Republicans and are in the groups labeled “undesirable” but you don’t really have to follow the commands of political hacks and Party Leaders. Read the rules, and follow them.
The Brennan Center has put together a wonderful site for student voters on where they may vote:
As a student, you have a constitutional right to register and vote in the place you truly consider to be “home” — whether that’s your parents’ house, your apartment, or your dorm room. But before you make the important decision about where to vote, make sure you know the rules (and sometimes consequences) of registering to vote in that state.
Everything in the Ohio section is accurate except for early voting, but the Republicans just changed the rules on early voting, so that small error is understandable.
BC
Senator Richard Lugar voted in a precinct where he had not lived and where he had sold his only land-based property for 30 years. No one (except me) is accusing him of voter fraud. Until the Republicans square this circle, I am skeptical of anything they say regarding voter eligibility and voter fraud. Ditto for any punditry decrying voter fraud.
Kay
@BC:
It’s great that you’re such a stickler. I am genuinely curious where Mitt Romney resides. I know he had to list a state of residence for ballot qualification, so I assume that’s all Right and Proper (he’s rich, after all, so above suspicion) but I AM curious.
I’m guessing Massachusetts.
SBJules
I’ve been wondering where Mitt was going to vote too.
waynski
I wish the national media and prominent Dems would just start calling it like it is… The Republicans ARE TRYING TO STEAL THIS ELECTION!!!
Say it loud. Say it proud.
RSA
This line just ticks me off, when it comes to something like voting. I’d say that Summers isn’t technically libelling those students who voted, but I’m pretty sure he’s not being patriotic to say what he does.
Steve
It would be nice if people would remember the rest of their life which party tried to piss on their vote as students. It doesn’t work that way, unfortunately, but maybe in some cases.
Mudge
My local newspaper today had an AP article on the voter supression efforts. The headline was “Voting laws may squelch youth vote”. In the article it states that “Proponents of voter ID and registration laws say the laws are intended to combat voter fraud.” There is no mention that voter fraud is a myth, it’s a “he said” without even a she said. No actual opponents are quoted. A Pennsylvania Deputy Attorney General says, “..nothing could be more rational than requiring a photo ID when voters come to the polls.” No one is quoted to repudiate his concept of “rational”. There is mention about high school students, specifically identified as inner-city..we know who they are.., in Philadelphia where 2 of 200 students had the requisite ID.
Our media.
cmorenc
Kay wrote:
It wasn’t even so back in 1860-world; else, the Mormons would never have been in a position to migrate from back east to the Salt Lake area to found the future state of Utah. Nor was it true for the many non-Mormons who migrated to Oregon and California to settle those areas during that general era of history.
In fact, it was the flood of migrants moving west into potential future states in the 1840s and 1850s that was among the causes of incendiary friction between southern slave states and northern “free” states that contributed to eventual secession and the Civil War. Would the emigrants to these territories be dominated by potentially slave-owning southerners or free-soil northerners who would be intent on outlawing slavery in whatever new territory and potential state that would be organized?
WaterGirl
@Steve:
The republican county clerk made it very tough for students at the University of Illinois to vote in 1972, the first time I was eligible to vote. I have never forgotten. That was also the first & last election where I voted for a republican.
gene108
There’s honestly a better rational to install breathalizers in every car sold in this country, than there is for people to present ID at the polls.
Instances of drunk driving happens a lot more often than is caught by the police or actually causes accidents.
This would be a common sense way to prevent anyone from driving drunk ever.
You blow into the dash mounted breathlizer and if your blood alcohol is too high, your car won’t start.
Similar logic to the photo ID-voter fraud issue, but trying to pass it as a law would mean you hate freedom and baby Jesus.
Horrendo Slapp (formerly Jimperson Zibb, Duncan Dönitz, Otto Graf von Pfmidtnöchtler-Pízsmőgy, Mumphrey, et al.)
Technically, Mr. Summers isn’t a grotesquely oversized dick masquerading as a human, but I’m pretty sure he is an enormous, mendacious disembodied anus. I hate these fucking people.
Frankensteinbeck
@gene108:
Having grown up in Kentucky, I would suggest that the majority of conservative voters have had the experience of someone arguing with them about whether they were safe to drive. It infuriated them then, and they feel an immediate instinctive resentment of the government doing the same thing.
The Other Chuck
Letting states set their own standards for federal elections is the god damned stupidest system imaginable. Federalize them. Send in the jackboots to *protect* democracy just once.
The Other Chuck
Letting states set their own standards for federal elections is the god damned stupidest system imaginable. Federalize them. Send in the jackboots to *protect* democracy just once.
sublime33
As one of the two e-mailers asking about student registration, a big thank you, Kay.
mamayaga
I think you’re being awfully nice to conclude that the snowbirds don’t commit vote fraud by voting twice in the same election. I recall reading an anonymous quote years ago (don’t remember where) in which a 1%er said that everyone she knew votes everywhere they have a house using absentee ballots. My own congressman, the inimitable DINO Dan Lipinski, was shown when he first ran for office to be on record as voting locally and in person for a number of years during which he was a resident in Tennessee, and didn’t even have a house in the district. This being Cook County, the voting records conveniently disappeared before anyone could do a proper investigation,
I realize that this may have about the same currency as the “stories” in wingnutopia about non-citizens voting in droves, but I do think that if we are discussing the reality or not of vote fraud, we should include all the possible types of vote fraud. The rich people’s gambit would in fact be easier to pull off, since the duplicate votes happen in different jurisdictions that don’t routinely talk to each other.
Ben Franklin
OT; Just finished watching This Week, for the last time. I watched last week as they displayed ABC’s unbiased show. One token liberal was on; Donna Brazille. The rest of the panel was a Festival of Tea Baggers.
This week didn’t change much. Ann Coulter is like, a regular on these shows now. Jonathon Karl said;
“I think Romney is gonna make a ‘bold’ choice for VEEP.” Is he aware McCain chose Palin for that very same reason?
Doubt it.
Villago Delenda Est
Republicans project their ethical bankruptcy on to others.
It’s what they do.
Every single time.
Kay
@Mudge:
I have to tell you, though, this is a like a feast after a famine. Think back to Florida in 2000, and how people were shocked that there had been all these pre-election machinations (caging voters, etc.) prior to the debacle. Hell, people were shocked that the voting system failed, but it was vulnerable all along. It was just never close enough to matter.
I haven’t been following this THAT long, but compared to 2004, where really substantive discussion of voting process was conducted EXCLUSIVELY on blogs, this media coverage is HUGE progress. To me, it’s like blanket coverage. I’m thrilled.
Juan Williams wrote an op ed on voter suppression. Doonsebury has picked it up as an issue. It’s mainstream.
When the Pennsylvania system fails (and I think it will fail, barring an injunction) there will be NO DOUBT who is responsible for this. Republicans, specifically, Governor Corbett.
That’s a sea change in 12 years. We hit the big time! Voting finally matters.
Anya
@Ben Franklin: Donna Brazile is useless. She’s the worst. She never counters any of the lies. I have never seen her say anything meaningful.
Zach
Democrats have been nearly as bad, historically when it comes to thinking it’s “unfair” that students vote where they live for four years. It’s just so unfortunately that it messes up well intentioned gerrymandering efforts to have large student-voting populations at land grant universities that tend to be in the middle of areas that vote quite differently. Many college towns are split into two different Congressional districts to reduce the power of collegiate voters; this leads to court challenges and it’d be a lot easier for folks to do away with college voting entirely.
And, of course, there are thousands of students at the typical big-10-type university who have out-of-state drivers licenses and are legally allowed to register to vote in their college town without getting a new drivers license. My guess is that this is the biggest impact of the voter ID laws, and it’s not a coincidence that many of the big voter-ID states have strong state university systems that attract a ton of out-of-state students.
Anya
Key, did you hear about Romney campaign’s BIG lie about early voting. They claimed that the Obama campaign’s lawsuit seeks to limit voting for military and their families. Is this playing big in Ohio? I’ve seen Ohio reporters who were pushing back on this lie. Hell, even Hot Air said it was not true.
Zifnab
@Kay: See, I’ve got this theory Mitt Romney is registered in Kenya.
quannlace
Ummm, sure. Just like mozzarella is a ‘bold’ choice for a pizza topping.
Omnes Omnibus
@Zifnab: I think Mexico is more likely given his family history. Or France. Ether would go over well with the wingnuts.
@quannlace: It is if you are lactose intolerant.
grandpa john
@Anya:
Which is probably the reason she is constantly on these TV shows as the token democrat
Ben Franklin
@Anya:
Well, she did her best to fend off the blows, but there is a limit. She does seem to try too hard to avoid the charge ‘Both sides do it”, and we need more attack dogs like Coulter.
Kay
@Anya:
I debunked it here. I think it’s a sign of desperation that Mitt Romney is going to a blurb on Breitbart that (intentionally) omitted a link to the Obama Administration complaint and then relied on that.
Mitt Romney (well, his lazy-ass staffers) get their “news” from Breitbart. Great! What next? Foreign policy from Drudge?
Here’s a rule of thumb I use. If you read an accusation related to a court filing, and the writer omits a link to the court filing, the writer is hiding something. You might not want to read the court filing, but the writer should link. If they don’t link, they don’t want you to read it.
I was fairly confident Ohio media would get it right, because it’s been such big news here, unlike, say, Politico. I went to a parade yesterday and every single man helping with the Democratic entry was a veteran, including the candidate, so I told all of them it was a lie.
I’m pleased with the Obama Administration and campaign response to voting rights. I think they are bound and determined to not have the first AA President preside over massive disenfranchisement, which is understandable, given our rather shameful history. They’re not going down without a fight.
Ben Franklin
@quannlace:
Off-white cheese could be interpreted by some as ‘Bold’ :)
scav
I hear that student voted in American Idol while setting in yet a third state. It’s entirely UN’MERCAN! Seriously, primaries? As apposed to Pillsbury Bakeoffs? Primaries are a party issue.
Allen
This is a bit eerie. The summer between my senior year in high school and my freshman year in college my parents moved to another state. The State of Oregon, bless their souls, sent my parents a letter telling them that I was no longer a citizen of the State. So I had to Move to Washington with my parents. The State of Washington did not consider me a resident except, of course, for a drivers license. Which had to be Washington, because I was a resident?
Anya
@grandpa john: Totally. Last time I watched her, Dowd and Will were arguing: Obama has to go negative because he has no accomplishments to run on. She couldn’t come up with a single accomplishment to counter with their lie. Instead, she talked about Obama standing the rain giving a speech in Virginia, while Romney was on vacation. WTF! I never liked her.
@Ben Franklin: I am glad she improved from few weeks ago. I think she’s intimidated by Will and Dowd.
rikyrah
Thanks for info like this, kay.you always inform.
rikyrah
Kay,
speaking of Willard’s residency, did you watch Rachel Maddow this week and her segments on Willard lying about his residency when it came to running for Governor?
rikyrah
Kay,
speaking of Willard’s residency, did you watch Rachel Maddow this week and her segments on Willard lying about his residency when it came to running for Governor?
cmorenc
@Anya:
Query whether Donna Brazile has become habitually inhibited from being more forcefully or effectively combative by fear of coming across as a stereotypical “angry black woman” who would thereby be dismissed from acceptance as a serious person within the village.
Marshall
The only person whom I know personally to have voted twice is a conservative relative. She was very unapologetic about it – she had moved, and wanted to vote in both of her “home” races. I was surprised, but I guess IOKIYAR.
Trakker
Every Gddamn citizen of America has a right to vote (with a few exceptions) and that right MUST be protected and guaranteed by the federal government.
Any citizen denied the right to vote for any reason this year should scream bloody murder, demand a provisional ballot, and be allowed a reasonable time to prove they are a citizen and legal resident. More importantly, as long as there are provisional ballots to be counted, no results from that precinct should be allowed to be reported.
Don K
@Zach:
In Michigan, the address on your ID must match the address where you are registered to vote. Now, most students change their DL’s (and the nice people at the Secretary of State’s office ask if you want to register to vote or change your voter registration at the same time), so Ann Arbor, East Lansing, and Ypsilanti are huge Democratic vote sinks. This, by the way, makes Republican gerrymanders just that little bit easier, since the kids and profs can be corralled into a couple of Senate districts and maybe four House districts that are guaranteed to go 70-75% Dem.
I’m amused to learn that, in 1972, when I voted in the New Jersey primary in June and in Minnesota in the general (I graduated high school in the interim), I was technically not committing voter fraud, but was instead unpatriotic (patriotism towards New Jersey? Really!? ROTFLMAO).
Sir Nose'D
Hey! That’s me! I moved to Wisconsin in 1996, registered to vote there, and as part of my registration I mailed a postcard back to my local elections board in Pennsylvania saying “remove me from your voter rolls–I vote with the Cheeseheads now.”
When I moved to Ohio in 2006, I registered to vote here. I don’t think I cancelled my Wisconsin voting status–I can’t remember, actually.
I do know for a fact that I am still on the voter rolls in Wisconsin, but not in Pennsylvania. You can check whether you are on the voter rolls in both states–cool! And despite just happening to be in my old voting Wisconsin district on recall day two months ago, did I vote? Did the thought of voting even cross my mind, despite being a hyper-partisan? Not at all. To do so would be inconceivable.
SiubhanDuinne
@Anya: I’m pretty sure that’s why ABC keeps inviting her on.
burnspbesq
@Kay:
I would guess that he high-tailed it out of Taxachusetts within days after his term as Governator ended. New Hampshire doesn’t tax wage or service income of individuals (it does tax passive income). Given how aggressively Romney has moved to reduce his Federal taxable income, it’s hard to imagine him leaving a couple hundred K of state tax on the table.
We’ll know on Election Day, I guess, unless he votes absentee to deny us undeserving peons the traditional photo-op.
burnspbesq
OT, but worthy of a read.
A pretty amazing (read: infuriating) story of the litigation arising out of Indiana’s failed effort to privatize the administration of social-safety-net programs.
The first two sentences of the opinion give you a good sense of what you’re in for:
http://balkin.blogspot.com/2012/08/indiana-court-autopsies-welfare.html
Thoughtcrime
The first AA President not only will prevent massive disenfranchisement from tainting this election, he’s going to depants the GOP on this issue in front of the whole world.
I’m looking forward to Obama’s October surprise when it’s proven that Romney committed voter fraud.
“When did he leave Bain?”, “Why won’t he release his tax returns?” is also related to that. They are part of the evidence. There’s other smoking guns that Axelrod has in his possession that will be revealed to definitively prove it.
West of the Rockies (formerly Frank W.)
The on-going voter-suppression efforts are very disturbing. Be it gerrymandering, trying to move elections to a time of year where students are less likely to be present (something attempted here in Butte County, California, where I live), disenrolling voters, etc., it is such a far cry from what we were taught about our political system and what we continue to teach our children: “Oh, this is America — let freedom ring! — everyone has a vote and it doesn’t matter what color your skin is as long as you work hard in life, you can have it all….”
We obviously all have to keep fighting the good fight, but sometimes I get so dejected about the whole durn human comedy I wanna cry… or drink lots of beer.
AHH onna Droid
@Anya: like Alan Colmes but worse because she makes their argument for them. Surprised Nice Polite Republicans has yet top give her a full time gig.
Origuy
A Kansas judge was stopped from early voting in the basement of the Reno County Courthouse; his picture is on the wall in the third floor.
Patricia Kayden
@waynski: Agreed. Put it in an ad.
Patricia Kayden
@Anya: That’s surprising since she was Gore’s campaign manager.
Oh wait!