No. 11 : Civics

The Student Vote Soars, Despite the Odds

       Austin Community College has made quite an inpression on their students by making information about the civics in our country and the importance of voting. The school self-funded 9 temporary early-voting sites across across thier multiple campuses. Approximately 14,000 people voted at the sites in 2018. Texas legistlature has now outlawed  polling places that do not stay open for the full 12 day early-voting period. All of ACC's voting sites will be shut dowm along with another 8 sites at other colleges across Texas. 

       The rate at which college sudents are voting to date is 40.3% higher than it has been in past years. Legistlators in Texas, are  looking to ensure that the state can remains a "red state". The New York Times article says, " Students lean strongly Democratic: In a March poll by the Institute of Politics at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, 45 percent of college students age 18-24 identified as Democrats, compared to 29 percent who called themselves independents and 24 percent Repubilcans. "Politicians tend to be used the excuse of trying to protect against election fraud, not trying to limit to polling sites for younger voters. 


       In New Hampshire, their legistlators have put a law into place that requires newly registered voters who drive to establish "domicile" in the state, which entails having a New Hampsire state license and auto auto registration, which is a timely and costly process for the new voters. In 2014, Florida's Republican Secretary of State made early-voting sites at state universities illegal. By  2018 the law was overturned and later that year 80,000 students voted at the early-voting sites after they were reopened. 

       In North Carolina, it now has a voter ID law that was adopted last year, which allows for student  identification, but the various requirements are difficult and confusing. Revisions were made to the rules, but still proved to be far to complex. The accredited colleges in the state can go through the process of having their school ID's certified  for voting, but as of now less than half of the schools have done so. Various states have put new laws into place that seem to affect the young voters accces to the poles. Despite all the bumps in the road, the number of students that vote as been increasing.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/24/us/voting-college-suppression.html?searchResultPosition=1