Youth voting studied
By MICHAEL CULVER
Youth turnout in last fall’s elections prompts Harvard’s Institute of Politics to recommend three major changes to simplify registration and voting procedures, to make student voting easier in future elections.
First, make the absentee ballot application and submission process clearer. Many absentee voters think that by submitting a voter registration form, they are requesting an absentee ballot, but voters are required to fill out a separate form to vote by absentee ballot.
Second, provide a solution for the overall system. Complex voting rules that vary from state to state and an increasing population of young voters living out-of-state is overwhelming the current state and local offices.
Third, rescue “marooned” voters. Make voting and voter registration easier. Voters in five states’ Illinois, Louisiana, Michigan, Nevada and Tennessee cannot vote by absentee ballot unless they registered in person in their own state, making voting registration drives less effective.
“Keeping youth political participation high will always be important for our democracy,” HIOP director Phillip Sharp said in a press release. “We must improve registration and absentee voting procedures to help achieve this goal and nurture good habits of citizenship in our nation’s young people.”
Sharp said the voting process was still complicated.
Uniformity, registration deadlines and voter identification requirements are obstacles students across the nation face in the electoral process.
“All states could help first-time voters by providing more information on their Secretary of State’s election Web site,” Estan Perez, HIOP director of communications, said.
In 2002, legislators passed the Help America Vote Act, which is designed to help state and local governments design, develop and implement new voter registration systems and educate voters on these new procedures.
“It’s hard to get information to the students because we’re such a commuter-based college,” Carolyn Coon, Fresno State’s executive director of student life, said. “We could probably do a better job at letting students know about registration requirements and deadlines.
“Even if we did institute programs it’s still up to the students to get there,” Coon said. “But because of the HAVA, “we’ve got thousands of registration cards, and put one in every office on campus.”
In 2002 legislators promised $3.9 billion over three years to state and local governments to pay for reforms of the HAVA. Congress appropriated $3 billion between 2003 and 2004 to help states implement these new programs and procedures.
Fresno received $300,000 of this money for the November election said Kathy McClue, Fresno’s assistant registrar of voters.
“We used the money for education,” McClue said. “We ran ads on radio, TV and newspapers.”
McClue also said they used the money to train precinct officers to make sure they are processing voters according to HAVA guidelines.
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