More Republican Attempts to Suppress Youth Vote in Colorado and New Mexico

Word is leaking out about more attempts to suppress the student vote, this time in Colorado and New Mexico, two battleground states that went for Bush in 2004 and look to be swinging blue this year:

Washington - Colorado Democrats accused a Republican county clerk Wednesday of falsely informing Colorado College that students from outside the state could not register to vote if their parents claimed them as a dependent on their tax returns.

At a news conference in Colorado Springs, Democrats also criticized Robert Balink, the El Paso County clerk and recorder, who was a delegate to the Republican National Convention, for taking other steps they said would dampen voting by college students, who are expected to heavily favor Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.

"When election officials spread false information about who is eligible to vote and remove, not add, polling places, we need to be concerned that eligible voters will be denied their right to vote," said Pat Waak, chairwoman of the Colorado Democratic Party.

Sujatha from the Student PIRGs did a little ninja work on this. Check out what she found:

Sujatha Jahagirdar, program director of the Student Public Interest Research Group's New Voters Project in Washington, said she encountered similar problems when she posed as a college freshman last week and called registrar's offices in Greenville County, S.C., home to Furman University, and York County, S.C., where Winthrop University is located.

Jahagirdar said a Greenville official asked if her parents listed her as a dependent, and when she replied in the affirmative, told her: "You should vote where your parents live." She said a York County representative asked if she was in town for school, and when she said yes, stated flatly: "You can't vote here."

This election is going to be won on the ground, and it's really a matter of whether or not the voter registration advantage Obama is building - particularly among young and first time voters - can hold up attempts to suppress the vote by Republicans, either through outright disenfranchisement, or by subtle discouragements such as long lines caused by a lack of polling places. If you encounter this in your neighborhood, remember to get in touch with the people at Student Voting Rights.