[EL] College Student Voter Suppression

[J.H. Snider]

My son, a rising sophomore at Yale College who is attending an intensive foreign language summer program out-of-state, recently called home with a most surprising problem.  Excited that at age 19 he is finally able to vote, he had diligently signed up with the Maryland Board of Elections to vote by absentee ballot for Maryland's statewide June 24 primary.  Since, according to my son, the Maryland Board of Elections no longer mails physical ballots, he received an electronic ballot which he was instructed to print out, fill out, place in an envelope, address, and mail back.  Sounds simple enough, right?  Well, it turns out my son, like many people his age, had rarely mailed an envelope before-a skill most people of older generations master in the third grade.  He not only wasn't entirely sure about how to address an envelope, but he certainly didn't have either an envelope or a stamp on hand in the one bedroom apartment he's renting for the month.  He also didn't have a printer to print out the ballot, since he generally walks a few blocks to the library to print out papers.  He originally thought that today was the deadline for voting by absentee ballot, but he turned out to be wrong on that, so it is possible he'll learn between now and election day how to use the United States Postal Service. But he has three major tests next week, so he just may not bother.

Now this is a technologically sophisticated and (we thought) reasonably intelligent and motivated young man.  He sends thousands of text messages a month and has been using email regularly since grade school.  He spends hours a day using his iPhone, iPad and MacBook Air, and I'd classify him as an expert user of some very sophisticated software programs.  But mailing an envelope?  He thinks that is a skill with as much use to him as reading cursive handwriting, paper maps, and analog clocks-all things, again, that people used to master long before reaching voting age.

I imagine that us old folks aren't very sympathetic to someone who hasn't learned a skill we consider absolutely fundamental to adult living.  But you could also argue that requiring post office literacy represents a new form of vote suppression.  I suspect that there are many college students similar to my son and that their number is growing all the time.  It seems to me that Maryland should do one of two things: allow my son to order an old-fashioned absentee ballot with a return envelope and hopefully return postage, or complete the transition to electronic voting.  Since the latter seems politically impossible in Maryland, the former would appear to be the only feasible method to eliminate this type of college student vote suppression. Alternatively, those who want to encourage college students to vote might want to set up shop on campuses and hand out envelopes and stamps the way they already escort certain disabled groups of voters to the polls.

If someone thinks this analysis is faulty, please let me know.

--J.H. ("Jim") Snider, Ph.D.
President of iSolon.org<http://www.isolon.org/>
Administrator of RhodeIslandConCon.info<http://rhodeislandconcon.info/>
(202) 540-0505

For my most recent op-ed on election law, see 'Dark money' drives R.I. constitutional convention votes<http://www.providencejournal.com/opinion/commentary/20140613-j.h.-snider-and-beverly-clay-dark-money-drives-r.i.-constitutional-convention-votes.ece>, Providence Journal, June 13, 2014.

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