Youth Voting

The Brennan Center released a report on the impact of all of these state Voter ID laws and restrictions on voting that have been popping up all over the country. Their findings? We're screwed. There's really no sugar coating this. We're screwed.

"State governments across the country enacted an array of new laws making it harder to register or to vote. Some states require voters to show government-issued photo identification, often of a type that as many as one in ten voters do not have. Other states have cut back on early voting, a hugely popular innovation used by millions of Americans. Two states reversed earlier reforms and once again disenfranchised millions who have past criminal convictions but who are now taxpaying members of the community. Still others made it much more difficult for citizens to register to vote, a prerequisite for voting.

These new restrictions fall most heavily on young, minority, and low-income voters, as well as on voters with disabilities. This wave of changes may sharply tilt the political terrain for the 2012 election. Based on the Brennan Center’s analysis of the 19 laws and two executive actions that passed in 14 states, it is clear that:

• These new laws could make it significantly harder for more than five million eligible voters to cast ballots in 2012.
• The states that have already cut back on voting rights will provide 171 electoral votes in 2012– 63 percent of the 270 needed to win the presidency.
• Of the 12 likely battleground states, as assessed by an August Los Angeles Times analysis of Gallup polling, five have already cut back on voting rights (and may pass additional restrictive legislation), and two more are currently considering new restrictions."

Some states have worked to eliminate Election Day Registration (EDR). We here at FM have long been advocates of EDR because it helps young people who tend to be more transient than older people who are more established and can afford to buy a house.

Voting rights advocates have long praised EDR. Because it has existed in some states for nearly forty years, there is a substantial record of its benefits. States with EDR have consistently had higher turnout than states without, and the top five states for voter turnout in 2008 were all EDR states. There is also evidence that EDR specifically increases turnout among young voters. . . .

Opponents of repeal also pointed to the benefits of EDR, including increased registration among the young and those who moved shortly before Election Day, greater voter turnout, and greater convenience for voters. Montana Secretary of State Linda McColloch argued that since its passage in 2006, 19,000 people registered to vote on Election Day in Montana, and that the repeal attempt ran “counter to the core freedoms of our democracy ... [i]f you support freedom, and you support democracy, you cannot support a bill that will turn your neighbors away at the polls.”

In a Democracy, why would you want to take away participation in that process? For that, you'll have to ask the GOP, because they seem to be at the helm of passing these more restrictive bills. EDR is one thing, but the voter ID laws are taking the imaginary problem of voter fraud and turning it into a farce.

"Opponents maintain that photo ID laws exclude large swaths of the electorate, since 11% of citizens— and an even greater percentage of low-income, minority, young, and older citizens—do not have state- issued photo IDs. They argue that photo ID requirements are similar to a poll tax, whether or not the IDs are offered for free, because to obtain the necessary IDs citizens must produce documents that cost money, like passports and birth certificates."

According to the ED of the Brennan Center 5 million voters will be hurt by these laws. FIVE MILLION VOTERS. In the NY Times he remarks that both the 2000 and 2004 elections were decided by less votes than that.

The war on college students continues with voting rights being threatened again. I don't know why they even bother anymore labeling students - why not just go after "anyone voting for Obama" and tell them they can't vote. At least it would be more honest. To make matters worse this report also includes clips of New Hampshire state House Speaker who calls students "foolish."

A Pew Research poll released this week showed that Democrats may be losing their grip on Millennials.

The Democratic advantage over the Republicans in party affiliation among young voters, including those who "lean" to a party, reached a whopping 62% to 30% margin in 2008. But by the end of 2009 this 32-point margin had shrunk to just 14 points: 54% Democrat, 40% Republican.

Cue the pundits - even those young Obamaphiles are realizing the dangers of liberalism, right? While some local outlets are probably lazily reporting it this way, we're actually seeing quite the opposite.

Pew's research still shows a heavy tilt toward many liberal stances among Millennial respondents, particularly in the areas of expansion of government responsibility, favoring gay marriage, and resisting the continued military occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan.

Futhermore, Millennials are the only generation in the study to have more respondents identify as "liberal" then "conservative." 29 percent identified themselves as "liberal" while 27 percent identified as conservatives.

(We know that the whole notion that youth are liberal until they grow older is, to borrow the British term, poppycock. Research shows that when youth vote for a certain party or form certain political ideologies when they come of age, they tend to keep that voting behavior/ideology over time, despite what many people might think.)

With all this taken into account, young voters are growing disenchanted with the Democratic Party because right now it represents politics as usual. It's not because we fear Democratic liberalism; it's the opposite -- we want more of it! To get it, we need our senators and representatives to find some fortitude somewhere and get moving. The public option resurgence is something to rally around, but it faces formidable challenges in Congress, one of those being Democratic skittishness given the party's lackluster performances in the VA and NJ gubernatorial elections and the special election in Massachusetts.

The bottom line is that as long as Democratic representation in Congress follows a centrist line, it will not be representing the interests and values of the Millennials, leaving more Democratic defections among the demographic likely. 2010 is too important for that.

Today young state Rep. Milack Talia is conducting a hearing about his bill HB 2256 in the Kansas State Legislature about working with the state DMV to pre-register young people when they come into get their drivers permit or drivers license.

HB 2256 was introduced with the purpose of increasing voter participation in our democracy which is an honorable attempt, but I fear the conservative elected officials don't want that at all. I can see elected officials trying to make this go away so they don't look bad to constituents for being against kids being instilled with things like civic pride. And if that happens, you should rest assured we'll cover it here first, on Future Majority!

According to the prepared testimony from Rep. Talia Kansas ranks 37th in the country with registration for those eligible to vote. And of those 18-24 only 49.4% are registered vs. 58.5% nationally. Yet, when those young people vote they do so to the tun of an 85% turnout.

Adam Fogel from the Right to Vote Director of FairVote, is also testifying at the hearing today. The following is an excerpt from his prepared testimony:

"Youth voter pre-registration is the first step in what should be the ultimate goal of developing a voter registration system that reduces the burden placed on the individual and ensures security in the process. This policy would allow young people to register to vote when applying for a driver’s license or farm equipment permit, the same way voters over 18 can do now because of the National Voter Registration Act (“motor voter”). It also gives high schools the ability to conduct systematic, effective voter registration drives in the educational atmosphere of a classroom. Recent research by Michael McDonald of George Mason University shows that the most successful implementation of youth voter pre-registration is accompanied by civic education programming.

This policy will also resolve the problem of the last-minute rush of voter registration applications local boards of election receive before the voter registration deadline every election cycle. Partisan and nonpartisan voter registration groups that register thousands of new voters have been known to hold onto the forms until days before the deadline, making it difficult for the local boards to process all of the forms before the election. Enacting youth voter pre-registration will make voter registration a year-round activity, where local boards of election will no longer be inundated with last-minute rushes and be forced to hire temporary, often inexperienced staff who could be prone to unintentional clerical mistakes."

As someone who believes very passionately in our systems of government, I wish we could see more people participating in the process. It is what makes our country great, and it is the foundation of all democracies. Instilling that civic pride in our youth as early as possible is nothing but a good thing.

Just reported on the Progressive States Network:

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed legislation, HB 30, allowing the pre-registration of 17-year-olds in the state of California. The state joins seven others that allow pre-registration at either 17 or 16. This follows close on the heels of North Carolina, which made their pre-registration age 16 over the summer. As with campaigns in other states, students themselves were the most persuasive advocates for pre-registration. Civically-minded youth and student leaders pointed to the opportunity that would be opened for students like themselves to encourage their peers to register and prepare for voting. Students and a range of advocates including the New America Foundation, AARP, The League of Women Voters and FairVote, made the case the this is a no cost way to boost participation by allowing registration before 18, when many people are in transition.

Disclaimer: it was actually AB 30, and its important to note that this law does not take effect for a couple of years, young voters cannot do this right now.

Matthew Segal from the Student Association for Voter Empowerment said

"I think pre-registration is a major step in the right direction because it helps institutionalize voter registration, said matthew segal. If implemented at DMVs it will also be essential in reaching many young people who are not college bound." SAVE supports replicating what we've done in California federally with a bill we are currently working with FairVote and Congressman Markey's office to introduce."

California's Secretary of State Debra Bowen said in an email from her spokesperson

"Hooking young adults on democracy is one of my priorities as California's chief elections officer," she said. "This expansion of the state's pre-registration law is a good step toward increasing voter participation across the state."

This is certainly a win for civic engagement, but a small one. FM's been monitoring some important electoral reform at the federal level. The Student Voter Act, a S.A.V.E bill, was slated for mark-up earlier this week but it's been rescheduled for early next month. This piece of legislation would affect college students at every higher education institution that receives public funding, essentially Motor Voter for schools. While states are making progress in electoral reform, federal legislation like The Student Voter Act would take a tremendous burden off of voter engagement organizations, allowing them to focus just on GOTV and education. At any rate, kudos to the California youth who just made voting easier in their state.

Chris Bowers wrote a post last night at Open Left explaining why the Republicans are facing such a gloom and doom scenario with young voters. In "Getting Older Doesn't Make You Less Black or Less Gay," Bowers argues that whether or not one gets more conservative as he/she ages is irrelevant. As the minority groups making up a significant amount of the Millennial generation continue toward majority-minority status, their affinity for the Democratic Party and simultaneous rejection of the GOP will prove to be firm and fixed.

...Now young voters are breaking toward Democrats at record levels not just because they are young, but because they are non-white, non-Christian, and out of the closet.

This is significant, because while you might trade in your heart for your head when you get older, you don't get more white, more Christian, or less gay with age. As such, Republicans are not going to start winning these voters over until they start performing better among non-Christians, non-whites, and the LGBT community...

While I agree with Bowers' final conclusion, I feel compelled to fuss with one piece of the premise. Bowers gives a bit too much credence to the "with age comes conservatism" bit. In Rock the Vote's "Partisanship: A Lifelong Loyalty that Develops Early," released in February 2007, we learn that the only thing remarkable about aging and political preferences is the stability in partisan identification over time.

In 1964, the seminal work on this issue, The American Voter, echoes this point: the authors note that "…persons who identify with one of the parties typically have held the same partisan tie for all or almost all of their adult lives."

"When we ask people to recall their first presidential vote, for example, we discover that of those who can remember their vote for President two-thirds still identify with the same party they first voted for."

"A majority (56 per cent) of these presidential voters have never crossed party lines."

Additional studies published in the 1990s bolster the finding that partisan identification is a remarkably stable factor over a voters’ life.

Partisan identification is, of course, not immovable; various factors, including candidate quality, major events (i.e. Watergate),and social factors (i.e. job loss, marriage) can move a voter to one party or another.

However, as noted in The American Voter, "[Partisanship is] a picture characterized more by stability than by change—not by a rigid, immutable fixation on one party rather than the other, but by a persistent adherence and a resistance to contrary influence."

The disaffection between youth and the Republican Party is extensively chronicled on this site and elsewhere throughout the blogosphere. The values which today's youth deem critical -- pragmatism, diversity, and cooperation among them -- barely make an appearance in the operations and politics of today's Republican Party. So Bowers' post noting the progressive views of the ever-growing minority populations is just one more layer in the turbulent relationship.

Perhaps the most frightening graphic for the GOP referenced in Bowers' post came from another post by Alan Abramowitz, at Larry Sabato's Crystal Ball. Of those 18-29 year olds voting in 2008, over 50 percent identified with the heart and soul of the Democratic Party.

Should the GOP continue to rely on its white, conservative base for electoral success, failing to grow any youth movement within the party, the numbers can only get worse. Of course I'm just a concern troll, so what do I know?

Bowers' post, combined with the lessons learned from the Rock the Vote paper, is just one more sign of a seismic shift in store for American politics.

I can't think of a better person than Secretary Jennifer Brunner to speak out about this issue. She understands more about the unbelievable disenfranchisement of young voters face than many and has dedicated her work in the Ohio SOS office to ensuring every citizen of her state who can vote is able to vote.

Please RT this video:
RT @SAVEvoting Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner Supports the Student Voter Act http://tinyurl.com/d34wcm

And please take a minute to push this around facebook to encourage more Secretaries of State to support it as well. THANKS!

HAVA = FAIL. The Help America Vote Act was passed after 2000 when we saw some of the most insane voting problems in Florida that required the US Supreme Court to decide who the President would be. So the new President decided to put forth millions of dollars to help that NEVER happen again... Guess what... it didn't help.

According to a New York Times piece the exact same number of people that had problems in 2000 matched the number of people who had problems in 2008. A whopping 4-5 million voters.

"An additional two million to four million registered voters — or 1 percent to 2 percent of the eligible electorate — were “discouraged” from voting due to administrative hassles, like long lines and voter identification requirements, the study found."

This is according to an extensive study by 150 universities lead by MIT during October and November which surveyed 33,000 eligible voters. The number one problem involved administrative errors. Not voter fraud.... not identification... not a failure to prove who the voter is or isn't.... clerical error. Oops!

This comes at an interesting time because 3 states this week are pushing the Voter ID Bill - claiming that we have to have an ID to prevent fraud. Texas, Oklahoma, and Georgia Republicans proposed legislation, leaving my mind to wonder.... is there a widespread rampant persistent itchy outbreak of voter fraud I haven't heard about going on?

The only voter fraud I heard about is Ann Coulter....

Mike posted the press release SAVE sent out yesterday talking about the problems in Texas and Oklahoma - and despite the save we made with the amendment to allow student ID's be used in Oklahoma - there are still thousands of Oklahomans that stand to be disenfranchised if Governor Brad Henry doesn't veto the bill.

One of the most amazing things was the mention for the record about the student ID portion by Rep. Joe Dorman and the profound floor speech by my buddy Rep. Ryan Kiesel. Listen live below:

In the end, however... it passed.

Texas is just as bad. In a release from the Texas Democratic Party it appears that a male member of the State Senate (Troy Fraser) decided to make sexest jokes rather than answer questions about the voter ID bill.

"I have trouble hearing women's voices," he said when fellow Senator Wendy Davis asked a question during the floor debate about SB 362.

"Sen. Fraser’s voter suppression legislation threatens to take Texas back to the days when some citizens had a voice in the election process and others, including women, were silenced,” said Texas Democratic Party Spokeswoman Kirsten Gray.  “Sen. Fraser and his fellow Texas Senate Republicans need to move past their selective hearing and listen to what this bill really is: A sad and divisive echo from the past."

The release also says that the proposed Texas Voter ID Bill would disenfranchise countless Texas women:

 

• Of all Americans without a license:
• Women are more than twice as likely as men not to have a drivers’ license.
• One of every five senior women does not have a license.
• Over 70% are women.
• There is ample anecdotal evidence that suggest factors like name changes related to marriage and divorce make it less likely a woman will have a current name and address on a photo ID that matches the name and address on the voter list.

The Times piece quotes Sen. Schumer who said that the number of people prevented from voting in 2008 actually exceeded the popular-vote margin in the previous two presidential elections - way to put it into perspective.

"Little has been done, however, to remove barriers to registration and absentee voting.

"Registration issues were for 2008 what machine problems were for the 2000 election,” said Stephen Ansolabehere, a political science professor at Harvard and the study’s lead author. . ."

The study also found that as the popularity of absentee voting had increased, so too had the challenges voters faced in getting those ballots, most often because the requested ballot arrived too late, or the information on the ballot request did not correspond to information in the voter rolls."

I think the increase of vote by mail might have something to do with the inconvenience of voting on Tuesday ... (insert shameless support for Why Tuesday here).

There is a great need for perfecting voting systems so we reduce the number of people that are disenfranchised - but the voter ID laws just cause more problems rather than solving them.

Bumped by Sarah. Kelly is a newly elected officer to the Kansas Young Dems I hope she comes back here often to blog her experience

It is common for me to be the youngest person in the room. Whether it is in a classroom, at work, or in a presentation at the public library, I am frequently the only one in the room that doesn't remember the 80's.

There was a time when this fact embarrassed me. I would try to keep my age a secret because it seemed like as soon as people discovered I was 18 years old, they took my opinions a little more lightly.

Prior to the election of President Barack Obama, it was a common theme among my peers that we didn't need to care about the daily happenings in Washington D.C. Too often, I heard my friends shrug off any kind of involvement because they felt like issues didn't relate to them. Even more disappointing, they felt like their voices didn't matter because they weren't a deep-pocked campaign donor or persuasive lobbyist.

But now, I am happy to report that a new sun is shining in the lives of young voters and he goes by the name of President Barack Obama. According to Circle, a nonpartisan research center, nearly 53% of voters under the age of 30 turned out in the 2008 election, sending a loud cry to all people that we are ready to be involved.

Suddenly, the issues matter to my peers and we have a leader fighting on our side. The cost of college is daunting, but we have a President who wants us all to afford higher education. The unemployment numbers are rising everyday, but Obama is taking action to stabilizing the economy so we can one day enter the workforce with confidence. Finally, we have a President that has made preserving our environment a priority so there is something left for our children and grandchildren to enjoy.

I have high hopes for the future of my peers. With President Obama leading the way, we can start activating young voters immediately. As we begin to find our voices and our place in the democratic process, we will become the next candidates for city council, govenor, and one day, president.

I am no longer embarrassed to be young and involved. I am able to stand proudly and demand that my elders take me opinions seriously knowing that my President is on my side. It is my hope that our parents and grandparents will follow suite and embrace our generation as powerful members of society.

In January 2009, about two percent of young voters are or have been on active military duty. And if the size of young voters was around 44 million (PDF) in 2008, then that means roughly 880,000 have served in the military at some point in their lives. If all young military folks were combined into a state, they would be the 45th most populated state, just larger than Vice President Biden’s home state of Delaware.

With the continuing conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, especially given President Obama’s recent order to increase troop levels in Afghanistan, young service members will continue to be abroad serving our country, making it difficult for them to participate in other meaningful ways at home. Voting is one of those ways. A new report by the Overseas Vote Foundation (PDF) on the 2008 election finds that:

“[m]ore than half (52%) of those who tried but could not vote, were unable to because their ballots were late or did not arrive.”

It’s important that active service members and veterans are able to vote, regardless of their stance on the war. Other issues such as veterans health care and educational loans, just to name a few, can be advocated through a representative. So, it’s imperative that folks who have more pressing issues (their day job) on their mind be able to vote easily and accurately.

There are several organizations working on the nexus of voting, military and youth. Some youth-specific groups, such as Rock the Vote and GoVoteAbsentee.org, helped to educate, register and get-out-the-vote of young service members. Military-focused organizations such as Vote Vets and Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America also try to activate their communities. Youth Vote Overseas is one organization that directly targets young people abroad. The government runs the Federal Voting Assistance Program (FVAP) for overseas and military voters. Despite these efforts, more education and refining of voting rules and laws needs to happen to ensure young service members can exercise their constitutional right. The Overseas report finds that:

“[n]early one-quarter, 23.7%, of experienced overseas voters still have questions or problems when registering to vote.”

That percentage is likely higher for young service members since they are very new to the voting process, especially in a high-stress environment. Moreover, there were logistical problems:

“[l]ate ballot receipt is one of the most significant problems UOCAVA [Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act] voters faced. Of voters who received their ballots, 39 percent received them after mid-October, making it difficult for to return their ballots in time to be counted.”

If ballot did not arrive, deployed soliders are supposed to take advantage of FVAP’s Back-up Federal Write-In Absentee Ballot, but the report finds that over half of overseas voters didn’t even know this back-up ballot was available.

Finally, the report recommends some ways to improve the voting process for overseas citizens are below, but two are especially noteworthy because the youth community is also pushing for legislation to secure election day registration and universal voter registration.

1. We call for ensuring the important role of UOCAVA
through legislative updates, in particular those that pursue
greater uniformity in the application of this key act.
2. We encourage adoption of the anticipated UOCAVA
Uniform Law intended to harmonize UOCAVA implementation
for overseas and military voters across all states
and territories.
3. We suggest the implementation of technology measures including
online ballot request for registered voters and online
blank ballot delivery to alleviate the transmission and
timing difficulties inherent in the UOCAVA equation.
4. We encourage innovation and investment in the Federal
Write-in Absentee Ballot and broadening the practice of
“Same Day Registration and Balloting” for UOCAVA
voters.
5. We underscore the importance of privacy and security
considerations when applying technology to UOCAVA
processes.
6. We propose a willingness to include UOCAVA voters
into any federal “universal voter registration”