DISQUS

Sally Miller · 1 year ago

I live in Switzerland, Europe. There is no voting anywhere in Europe unless you are signed up in your community in advance, pay taxes in the community and show the ID received from the community. Once you are registered as a citizen of a community you are registered until you register elsewhere.
There is no reason for not requiring proof of citizenship. The thing I least like in the US is for dependent students to be allowed to vote in a community they do not pay taxes in and will not continue to live in. They should vote in their home communities. It is not democratic to alow them to off balance a community of working citizens.

Believe me the rest of the democratic world is far less "easy" on potential fraud than the US through paying people to register voters, no ID or residency requirements etc. That is not "freedom" it is licence for the most devious and unscrupled to cheat!

Wendy Norris · 1 year ago

Thanks for your comment, Sally.

To your point about students casting ballots, they do pay taxes in the community where the attend college — state and local sales taxes, at a minimum, not including impact fees and taxes for quality of life programs.

And since many students work while in school, they do pay local, state and federal income tax, Social Security, Medicare, etc.

I think it would be far more problematic in the democratic process for students to cast likely uninformed ballots on candidates and issues in their parents' home communities that they seldom reside in.

Sally Miller · 1 year ago

Thanks for the response. You are not seriously saying that a student would know more about local issues (say in their sophmore year) than where they grew up - after 6-10 week absences a a time & calling home etc? (At least that was not my experience when studying in another State.)

It is far more likely that they are studying and mostly little involved in their communities beyond campus and vote for ideological reasons. And by voting, they do off-balance states regularly - if they voted at home, of course, they would not avail themselves of the "mass" impact so desireable by one party in particular. I find that not at all in line with my idea of democracy of all the peole.

You are right that the US should have common voting rules, at least for national elections - but that is not what our founding fathers wanted (they were quite restrictive in their views of voting "rights") - I dare guess they would be a little shocked by some of the goings on in the name of "different or more" rights for some groups or what is often ideology (political correctness) above reason.

The point of citizenship should be common requirements for common rights. Voting is so important to me that I feel people should study and learn before voting or abstain until they have the chance to do so. It is the future of all that they are impacting when they vote. It should not be a popularity contest or an "I will impose my views" contest.

I am ashamed of the way Congress is partisan and the campaign so ugly these days (look at the language used on blogs and comment sections of the Washington Post for instance). Mom would have said "six of one, half dozen of the other", The days of "hope" etc are long gone to my mind... cheers!

Wildflower · 1 year ago

So far as know, at least in Colorado, students going to college out-of-state can vote absentee ballot as long as they keep Colorado their official residence.
Oh yes, college students do indeed pay a ton of taxes in their college state.
My student, a graduate student, has permanent residence in the college state now and I bought a property there because I got tired of paying rent., so I even pay taxes in that state. These students have every right to vote.
I would trust the knowledgablenes of the vote of a conscientious college student and their comprehension of the world over a right wing fundamentalist vote any day.
Give these students credit, they know what they're doing. It's their future, they have a right to the decision.