Fighting for Student Voting Rights In Texas

There's an important story in the New York Times today about student voting rights. Down in Prairie View Texas, two voting rights cases are underway. The first involves the use of voter fraud charges by the Attorney General to intimidate black and hispanic (Democratic) voters in the country. Recent reports indicate that of 26 voter fraud cases brought by the Attorney General, all were against Democrats and almost all were against black or hispanic voters.

The second involves hundreds of students who were denied their right to vote in 2006:

Before the 2006 election, Judge Charleston said in an interview, he personally registered about 1,000 students. But on Election Day, he said, hundreds of them were turned away as not registered to vote. The registration cards were later found in county offices, he said.

Ellen C. Shelburne, the county tax assessor and registrar, who took office in January 2007, said she had recently been questioned by investigators from Mr. Abbott’s office and had told them that she knew nothing about the matter. Jerry Strickland, a spokesman for Mr. Abbott, said, “We cannot comment on ongoing investigations.”

Waller County has a long history of voter suppression, but we don't have to go back all that far to know that this will be important in November. During the primaries, Waller County purposefully tried to discourage student voting by locating early voting locations far from campus at the county seat. Students protested that decision at the time and marched over 7 miles to cast their ballots:

I expect tactics like this will become common in many places this November, particularly after the Supreme Court issued its ruling on the Indiana voter ID law. Student voter suppression happens every year. It occurred in 2004, it occurred in 2006, and those were elections cycles in which most of the political class did not think the youth vote would matter.

This year, the youth vote could be up to 25% of the electorate and will likely vote around 66 - 33 Democratic. Does anyone have doubts that the Republicans will do all they can to suppress that vote?