How Republicans Are Preventing Thousands Of Wisconsin Students From Voting Today

[Tx4obama]

MADISON, Wisconsin — Voter ID will not be in effect for today’s recall vote in Wisconsin, but that won’t stop last year’s anti-voter bill from disenfranchising thousands of students across the state.

A year ago, Wisconsin Republicans pushed through Assembly Bill 7, which enacted one of the worst forms of voter ID in the nation. Since then, two state judges have blocked voter ID from taking effect because the Wisconsin state Constitution guarantees that “[e]very United States citizen age 18 or older who is a resident of an election district in this state is a qualified elector of that district,” regardless of whether or not they have an ID.

However, a little-noticed provision in AB 7 will likely prevent thousands of college students from voting in today’s recall election.

Section 12 of the new law increases the time period a citizen must live in one location in order to register there from 10 days to 28 days. Though seemingly innocuous, the problem is that the five largest colleges in Wisconsin — University of Wisconsin-Madison (40,000 students), University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (27,500 students), Marquette University (11,500 students), University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh (11,500 students), and University of Wisconsin-Whitewater (11,000 students) — all had their graduations either the weekend of May 12 or the weekend of May 19, 24 days and 17 days ago, respectively.

Therefore, any student at these schools who registered to vote at school but is now home for the summer will not be permitted to update their registration at their parents’ house because they will have been home for less than 28 days. Under the old law, a student not on campus for the summer would have been permitted to update her registration at the polls and vote because she will have been home (or elsewhere off-campus) for more than 10 days.

-snip-

Full article here: http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/06/05/494926/republicans-disenfranchise-wisconsin-college-students/

[freshwest]

1. I hope they remember this in November...

[HereSince1628]

2. This is speculation, it even admits to being speculation,

"However, a little-noticed provision in AB 7 will likely prevent thousands of college students from voting in today’s recall election."

There were big pushes on college campuses prior to the end of the year to educate students about how to deal with this. It was my sense that at Madison that had been pretty productive. I'm VERY hopeful that high numbers of absentee ballots are actually related to students who were registered to vote at their school addresses.

I'm not going hyperbolic over guessed at numbers on this.

[Dr Fate]

3. How the DOJ and Democrats are preventing Republicans from doing this is an even better story.

Developing- link is forthcoming.

[flamingdem]

4. k n r

[LiberalFighter]

5. I would dispute that provision

When I was a student at UW-Whitewater and living on campus I voted absentee even though I lived about 20 miles from home. I considered my legal residence to be where I lived with my parents.

[Doctor_J]

6. Yep, and our AG did not a fucking thing about it

disgrace, disaster.

[proverbialwisdom]

7. WI voters aged 18-29 made up only 16 percent of the electorate on Tuesday.

http://www.nationaljournal.com/politics/wisconsin-exit-poll-voters-like-obama-don-t-like-recalls-20120606

Wisconsin Exit Poll: Voters Like Obama, Don't Like Recalls

By Steven Shepard
Updated: June 6, 2012 | 12:21 p.m.
June 6, 2012 | 6:00 a.m.

<...>

Barrett hoped that an influx of young voters would aid his candidacy, but voters aged 18-29 made up only 16 percent of the electorate on Tuesday, virtually equal to their 15 percent in 2010, and well under their 22 percent representation in 2008. Moreover, Walker only lost these young voters by 4 percentage points, 51 percent to 47 percent. In 2010, Barrett carried voters aged 18-29 by 10 points. In 2008, Obama bested Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., among young voters by a staggering 29 points. Meanwhile, Walker carried all other age groups, including an 10-point advantage among seniors.

Walker lost ground among low-income voters, according to exit polls, trailing Barrett among those with a household income below $50,000 a year by 12 percentage points. He ran only 3 points behind in 2010. But the percentage of low-income voters declined, and Walker maintained his edge among wealthier voters, beating Barrett by 26 points among those making $100,000 a year or more, 63 percent to 37 percent, up slightly from the 22-point margin he racked up in 2010.

The education gap that propelled Walker in 2010 was also evident on Tuesday. In both 2010 and 2012, Barrett won voters with a college degree by a single point, but Walker won those without a degree -- the majority of Wisconsin voters -- by 13 percentage points.

Looking at only white voters, Walker won whites without a college degree by 23 percentage points, 63 percent to 38 percent, according to an ABC News analysis updated on Wednesday. In 2010, Walker won non-college whites by a slightly narrower margin, 58 percent to 40 percent. Walker's dominance among these voters is even more apparent looking at white men without college degrees, two-thirds of whom favored Walker (67 percent to 33 percent).

<...>

[WI_DEM]

8. the recall being in the summer when school is out wasn't helpful either.