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GSS denounces poll proposals

State voting rules would be made more stringent is passed

Posted on Feb. 24, 2011, at 12:26 a.m.

The University of Maine’s General Student Senate passed a resolution Feb. 22 condemning two bills circulating in the Maine Legislature that would restrict voting rights statewide, most notably for college students.

The resolution was proposed by Caleb Rosser, a third-year political science student and a former student senator, and was sponsored on the senate floor by Sen. Peter Christopher, a fourth-year secondary education student.

“This is clearly designed to suppress and deter students from voting,” Rosser said.

LD 199, “An Act to Strengthen Maine’s Election Laws by Requiring Photograph Identification for the Purpose of Voting,” would require a voter to show a form of government-issued identification that listed a residence located within the voting district.

LD 203, “An Act to Assist Municipal Clerks by Providing Adequate time to Register Voters,” would require potential voters to register “no later than the Tuesday preceding the election in order to vote in that election.”

Current Maine state law permits same-day registration, so unregistered voters can fill out a voter registration card minutes before being handed a ballot.

“This is billed as something that would lessen the burden on town clerks,” Rosser said during his presentation to the senate. “I have looked for various complaints from town clerks saying that they could not complete the work that was put forth to them. I did not find [any]. In 2008, when I went to the caucuses for Hillary and Obama, I saw a town clerk do 600 of these in one day.

“It took a while, but no one said democracy would be fast,” he added.

Rosser said the proposed legislation would require the registration of many college students on a yearly basis due to the temporary nature of both on- and off-campus housing.

“I asked the body, student government, ‘Who here has updated their license?’ And out of everyone, like, three people out of fifty people” raised their hands, Rosser said.

“My license says Caribou, of course, because that’s where I got it, and if I wanted to vote in Orono, I’d need to go change that to my address in Orono,” he said. “That costs money to change that stuff. What I see here is a violation of the 26th Amendment, basically, which eliminated poll taxes, which were used back in the day to deter poor people — African Americans, minorities — from voting.”

By forcing residents whose addresses have changed to renew their licenses to reflect those changes, Rosser asserted, the state would be charging a sort of poll tax through renewal fees.

“The only way I can see them sort of getting around this is if they were to provide everyone with a voter registration card or something like that free of cost to everyone who needed one, which would just cost the state a lot of money,” he said.

Rosser said support spurring the bills on has suggested the two measures would save the state money and would alleviate the issue of fraudulent voting; however, he disagreed.

“One, this wouldn’t save the state money. It would cost the state money,” he said. “And two, this wouldn’t fix the voter fraud problem because we don’t have a voter fraud problem.”

Only two substantiated cases of fraudulent voting in Maine have been identified in three decades, according to Rosser, and both occurred when voters cast multiple ballots in the same election.

“That’s two cases, neither of them voter impersonation, in the last 30 years, which averages out to be 0.066 votes cast a year,” he said.

Rosser said his motivation for proposing the resolution to the student senators was to align college students’ voices in a coherent statement of disapproval.

“Voting is one of the most coveted human rights in the world. A lot of places don’t have it, and they want it, and we’re trying to restrict is? I don’t see the logic there,” Rosser said. “Why are seeing a mobilized citizenry and active voting as a liability and not an asset?”

According to Rosser, the proposed legislation would unfairly target college communities such as Orono and Portland, which both host large campuses.

He implied collusion on the part of Republican lawmakers who, he says, are consciously attempting to disenfranchise their opposition in order to remain the majority in Augusta.

“If you just take a look at the numbers from 2008 and 2010 on campus, you know, who did the majority vote for?” Rosser asked, alluding to the generally recognized liberal atmosphere of higher education. “LePage didn’t carry this district. [Republican state house candidate Zachary] Jackman didn’t carry this district, and [Republican] Traci Gauthier, Elizabeth Schneider’s state senate opponent, did not carry this district.”

While Christopher did not suggest Republican suppression of voters perceived as being liberal, he said he agreed with Rosser that the voting rights of college students need to be protected.

“I felt it was the right thing to do. I think that students need to know about the types of legislation that have gone through down in Augusta and they need to know that there are people out there who are seeking to restrict our voting rights,” Christopher said.

Christopher also expressed concern that, if passed, the bills further limit the opportunities for UMaine students to cast their ballots.

He said that if same-day registration were no longer permitted then he would be “willing to bet money that there would not be enough traffic in the Wade Center to sustain a voting center there.”

“It is not something we should be taking lightly and it’s something I felt we need to speak out about as students,” Christopher said.

Rosser cited Maine’s proportionally high level of voter turnout and expressed concern that Mainers, especially young Mainers, would start rethinking their decision to find a poll on Election Day. He compared Maine’s current voting laws to those of other states, saying a tightening of those laws would squeeze out voters.

“Maine has the third-highest voter turnout rate in the country behind Minnesota and Wisconsin,” Rosser said. “Both of those two states ahead of us have very similar legislation on the books as to what we have in regards to voting laws and rules that apply.”

Senators received Rosser’s resolution well; however, some opposition was voiced to its focus.

Sen. Alison Conners was concerned that the idea of college students losing their ability to vote was being exaggerated.

“I understand this from a fiscal point of view,” Conners said after Rosser’s presentation Tuesday. “But as far as saying this restricts voting, I think is inaccurate. I think it’s saying, ‘This, oh my gosh, makes it more inconvenient for where I happen to be,’ but that’s different from restricting voting. This isn’t restricting voting at all. It’s making it more organized and saying, ‘If you happen to be here for a semester then, yeah, we’re going to ask you to show residency,’ and if not, heaven forbid you vote absentee.”

Despite this concern, the senate voted in favor of the resolution. It will be forwarded to Gov. Paul LePage, Senate President Kevin Raye, the senate majority and minority leaders, and other prominent individuals in state government.

Christopher Crosby contributed to this report.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 24th, 2011, 12:26 am. You can follow any responses to this article through the RSS feed.