Why Its Hard For College Students to Vote
Students in the AUC face challenges to vote in Georgia’s midterm election.
The victory of Donald trump nearly two years ago has pushed the importance of voting to the forefront. Georgia has been the center of attention. Democratic candidate Stacey Abrams is racing to become Georgia’s first African American woman governor. According to CBS news, Abrams is tied with her opponent Brian Kemp at the polls.
As of late, there has been a push to get more young people to vote. Leading up to the midterm elections progressive group Acronym released an advertisement featuring older voters taunting millennials to get out and vote.
The Abram’s campaign has been more hands on. The AUC has been filled with campaign workers walking around trying to get registered to vote. The majority of the students they stop though, are either too busy to stop or lying about already being registered.
With three HBCU campuses, Morehouse, Spelman, and Clark Atlanta University, mear feet from each other; it seems like the perfect place to canvas for potential African American voters but its actually not. According to the Democratic Party of Georgia Voter Protection Hotline, there are a few criteria that make it hard for students in the AUC to participate in this gubernatorial race.
To vote in this midterm election you have to be established as a resident of Georgia. The majority of students in college have multiple addresses. The first is their home address and the second is their school’s address. The problem that arises is students are not allowed to use their school address to register to vote. The state does not recognize a student living in a dorm as a resident of Georgia. According to the Morehouse housing department, out of the roughly 2,100 students enrolled this semester, about 1,450 of those live on campus. The only way a student who lives on campus could vote in Georgia’s midterm election is if their family lives in the state.
Fortunately, when you analyze the demographic data of undergraduate students enrolled in one of the AUC schools based on geographic origin, you find that there are many students from Georgia. In fact, both Morehouse and Spelman see more student from Georgia than anywhere else. Clark Atlanta is the outlier, with only 27% of its undergraduate population made up of in-state students.
Voter ID laws have become increasingly more strict as of late. In October, the Associated Press released a story reporting that 53,000 Georgian voters had been placed on a “pending” list due to some sort of discrepancy with their voter registration paperwork. For college student meeting the exact requirements to vote can be complicated. Georgia election law requires voters to show one of six forms of photo identification in order to vote in person. For an out-of-state student living off campus, they can still encounter problems. If a student cannot provide a form of identification that proves that they’re a Georgia resident, the state will not allow them to vote. Students who attend private institutions are not allowed to use their student ID as a form of identification. With two of the three schools in the AUC being private, that presents a problem for many students trying to vote. A Georgia driver’s license is a valid form of ID but, for most students in the AUC students, Georgia is their temporary home. Students usually keep the license from their home state until they established a stable residence of their own.
Nevertheless, voting is still more important than ever. Especially for young people. The decisions that are made now ultimately affect the lives of young people later down the line. Even if you can’t participate in Georgia’s gubernatorial midterm election this year, it’s important to get involved in your state’s election. If an out-of-state student can’t travel back home to vote, they can request an absentee ballot that will allow them to vote in their state. Voting awareness is at an all-time high, many states are going through pivotal elections and it is extremely important that we do our part to help.
Emmanuel Johnson is a Senior at Morehouse College. He is a aspiring radio journalist who has had his work featured on NPR stations in both North Carolina and Georgia.
