How the GOP is trying to stifle the student vote: report

A fresh series of efforts across Republican-controlled states is aiming to restrict the right of college students to vote, reported CNN on Tuesday.

"Laws enacted in Idaho this year, for instance, prohibit the use of student IDs to register to vote or cast ballots," reported Fredreka Schouten and Shania Shelton.

"A new law in Ohio, in effect for the first time in Tuesday’s primary elections, requires voters to present government-authorized photo ID at the polls, but student IDs are not included. Identification issued by universities has not traditionally been accepted to vote in the Buckeye State, but the new law eliminates the use of utility bills, bank statements and other documents that students have used before."

"A proposal in Texas would eliminate all campus polling places in the state. Meanwhile, officials in Montana – where Democrat Jon Tester is seeking a fourth term in one of 2024’s highest-profile Senate contests – have appealed a court decision striking down additional document requirements for those using student IDs to vote," said the report.

"And voting rights advocates say a longstanding statute in Georgia, which bars the use of student IDs from private universities, has made it more difficult for students at several schools – including Spelman and Morehouse, storied HBCUs in Atlanta – to participate in Georgia’s competitive US Senate and presidential elections."

All of this is triggering not just protest but litigation, with voting rights and youth organizations suing to block the measures in Idaho.

GOP lawmakers have claimed they have other reasons for the changes than voter suppression. In Idaho, state Sen. Scott Herndon claimed to be excluding student IDs because not all student IDs have photos. And the Republican sponsoring the bill to eliminate campus polling places in Texas, state Rep. Carrie Isaac, claimed that her measure was actually about preventing mass shootings, by eliminating an event that makes a lot of people gather in one place.

But all of this comes after voter registration surged for 18 to 29 year olds, and after those voters broke far more dramatically for Democrats in 2022 than during a usual midterm — a key reason the GOP failed to win control of the Senate, only won control of the House narrowly, and lost governorships and state legislatures, despite hoping for a "red wave."

“Republican legislatures … are pretty transparently trying to keep left-leaning groups from voting,” UC-Berkley's Democracy Policy Initiative director Charlotte Hill told CNN, adding that the GOP is trying "to shrink the eligible electorate" rather than focus on why they are doing so poorly with these voting groups.