Why don’t college students vote, and what can we learn that applies to all voters?
Why should anyone other than college students care about college voters? At face value it seems like restrictions affecting college students would only affect them. What’s important about looking at these issues is that the voter suppression college students face are the same common voter suppression techniques used against all groups. Other disenfranchised groups like homeless people and Native American tribes also have similar issues around residency when voting. Low income voters face scheduling obstacles. Black people and People of Color face voter suppression from officials.
By examining the tactics used to disenfranchise college students, we see how deeply ingrained voter suppression is. Additionally, in a meeting held by the United States House of Representatives Committee on House Administration (2008), it was said that, “if first time voters cannot register and vote the first time they try, they will be less likely to participate in future elections”(p. 4). When people don’t vote in their youth, they develop a habit of not voting. This cycle can be broken by educating and helping young college students to vote. Making sure these students vote is incredibly important to creating life-long democratic participants.