As former President Bill Clinton launches a campaign to change requirements to vote, another political battle between the Democrats and Republicans has ignited yet again.
Clinton’s “Voter Expansion Project” has the support of the left, which says lessening restrictions will enable more Americans to vote.
“Why are Republicans selecting the forms of ID that don’t cover most people in their state?” Pratt Wiley, the Democratic National Committee’s director of the program, asked on a conference call Tuesday afternoon. “Why is a student ID not acceptable?”
In June, a controversial, Republican-added amendment that tied in-state tuition rates to a public university’s decision to give out-of-state students a letter proving residency so they can vote in Ohio was struck out of the Ohio budget.
It would have cost public universities in Ohio a combined total of about $370 million in tuition fees with Ohio University losing about $12 million, officials estimated.
State Sen. Lou Gentile, a Democrat whose Senate district includes part of Athens, agreed with the senate’s decision to omit the provision.
“It was an obvious decision to disenfranchise student voters and hold public universities hostage,” Gentile said in a previous Post article.
Democrats said Republicans were trying to suppress a voting block that usually swings left by threatening universities with losing tuition.
Ryan Lombardi, vice president for Student Affairs, said about 175 letters were sent to non-resident students during the 2012 election season, allowing them to vote in Ohio county and state elections.
Some of the ideas to help facilitate additional voters Wiley mentioned were: “universal registration,” online registration and allowing college students to register for voting when they register for classes.
“There is no greater assault on our core values than the rampant efforts to restrict the right to vote,” Clinton said in a February 2014 speech. “They’re all designed to make it harder, especially (for) those of color, the elderly, those with disabilities and young college students to get to polls.”
There is a distinct difference in the way the two sides refer to the issue. Democrats tend to refer to it as “voter rights,” and Republicans tend to look at it as safeguarding the legal integrity of a vote.
“That’s their theme song, and they repeat it over and over again,” Athens County Republican Party Chair Pete Couladis said. “When they say you don’t need these safeguards, they do.”
Young voters who are in college sometimes face confusion when it comes to registering to vote, as many are crossing county, or even state lines.
Couladis said the Democrats had no evidence of his party trying to suppress voters, and defended the GOP’s desire to have voters show legal ID when they show up to the polls.
“They want people to show up and register that instant, and that’s dangerous,” Couladis said. You need an ID to get on an airplane; you need an ID to buy alcohol; why shouldn’t you need an ID to vote?”
But Democrats feel the current safeguards in place are enough to prevent significant voter fraud.
“We think that there are great safety measures already in place,” Wiley said.
@lucasdaprile
ld31710@ohiou.edu
