Moving to North Carolina for college, I was excited to vote in a new state and make my voice heard. I was excited, that is, until I found out how hard it is for college students to vote in this state.
Two years ago, in 2013, the North Carolina State Legislature passed a sweeping voter reform bill. Among other things, this bill inhibited college student’s ability and right to vote in our state. In a country based upon the principles of democracy, it is essential that all people have a simple and easy path to vote — limiting any group’s chance to vote is justifiably insane. However, our state has done just that.
Up until 2014, NC State had an on-campus voting location allowing students easy access to vote. Now, just two years later, State’s on-campus voting location has been removed from Talley Student Union Building and the closest voting location is 2.7 miles off campus. For the many students who don’t have transportation, this is simply unacceptable.
Further, and perhaps even more troubling, by 2016 NC State students will no longer be able to present their NC State student IDs as a valid form of identification. Yes, you heard that right, a state-issued ID, from a public, state university, will no longer be enough identification to allow a student to vote.
Again, our state legislature limited students voting rights when they eliminated a pre-registration program for 16- and 17-year olds. Instead of supporting a beneficial program which passed with bipartisan support just three years earlier and allowed thousands of North Carolina youth to register early, our state legislature cut the program, opting to force students to wait to register. Now, North Carolina youth can no longer register to vote when they receive their driver’s license, but must instead take a separate trip to come back a year or two later.
All three of these troubling laws directly target and limit the North Carolina youth’s right to vote. Instead of supporting a growing population of voters excited to let their voices be heard for the first time, our state has chosen to suppress and disenfranchise youth voters. We don’t try to inhibit our mothers from voting in the newest season of The Voice, so why are we limiting the youth vote in a situation that matters so much more?
The vast majority of NC State students know the importance of voting and want to do so, but if our state continues to support initiatives which inhibit our voting access, our voter turnout is only going to drop. This creates far reaching negative effects for our state. By disenfranchising the youth vote, as North Carolina has done, our state cuts out a large demographic of its voting population. Our politicians no longer have to represent college students in their work because they don’t have to care about us voting for or against them. Thus, many student-pushed initiatives fall flat in our state government.
It doesn’t take a political mastermind to understand the debilitating effects these negative laws are having on our state, but more importantly on youth voters in our state. Many political pundits in North Carolina often wonder why there is such low youth voter turnout compared to other age groups, but, because of everything going against us, I find myself wondering how our turnout isn’t even lower.
