GOP's ‘modern-day poll tax’ scheme ignites swift student backlash: 'Not looking good'

Republican elected officials are “attacking college voters” by cutting campus polling access, Mother Jones reported Monday — but the longer trips to vote have fueled student organizing in key battleground states.

“It essentially creates a modern-day poll tax,” North Carolina A&T student organizer Shia Rozier told the outlet.

After Republican election officials rejected an early voting site at the historically Black university, student Jimmie Holton Jr. faced paying up to $30 for a rideshare or walking 45 minutes. He joined roughly 300 students on a march to vote.

Mother Jones pointed to a 2024 study finding that three-quarters of higher education institutions lacked in-person campus voting options. Republican officials are now eliminating some remaining sites, according to the report.

In Tarrant County, Texas, Republicans cut 92 previously approved polling locations, including UT Arlington’s campus site, where more than 8,000 people voted in 2024.

Student body president Andres Morales said that decision “created a fire that I don’t think they would have realized if they hadn’t taken it away.”

“Students have mobilized with renewed energy on campus, he said, organizing voter registration drives, early voting parties, and free transportation to voting locations,” Mother Jones reported Monday.

At Ohio’s historically Black Central State University, students face six-mile trips after election officials moved their nearest voting location.

Tarrant County Commissioner Alisa Simmons, a Democrat who opposed the cuts, accused Republicans of intentionally attempting to discourage voters of color

“If you are afraid of your opponent, you should just run a great race,” Simmons said. “But disenfranchising your constituents and the voters—the blowback is not looking good for them.”