Recently, five forward-looking members of Congress introduced the “Equal Access to Support Youth Voting Act” or “EASY” (H.R. 5144). It should be easy to pass. It is a common sense reform that would help students, one of the very populations that we’re always hoping will become more involved in the democratic process. Unfortunately, like so many other common sense election reform bills in recent years, this one will not be easy to pass.
The bill says simply: “Dear States: if you’re going to require photo ID to vote in a federal election, one of the acceptable IDs must be a current and valid photo ID issued by an institution of higher learning.” (It’s applicable only to federal elections because that’s the limit of Congress’s jurisdiction.) The bill does not do anything to deter states from enacting strict photo ID laws, though many voting rights advocates would rather it did. It just removes one hurdle in the way of student voting, the kind of hurdle that has been gaining traction in many states, where “how hard can we make it to vote?” has become a legislative blood sport. In Texas, for instance, a concealed handgun license is an acceptable photo ID, but a student ID is not. (“Blood sport” is exactly what I mean.)
So why won’t the EASY Act pass easily? Since 2010, not a single piece of voting legislation has passed in either house of Congress, with the exception of bills aimed at military voters. Of course, the special needs of military voters had been ignored for far too long. But they aren’t the only voters, or would-be voters, with needs. State election officials and state legislators have marginalized students in recent years—restricting their ability to vote in the state where they attend college, threatening their financial aid if they don’t vote where their parents reside, requiring in-state drivers licenses to vote where they go to school—the possibilities seem to be endless. And like so many groups of voters who have become political footballs, students tend to vote toward the liberal end of the political spectrum, a fact that is rarely spoken aloud but is often the pretext for these rules.
It is lamentable that making voting easy has become a bitterly divisive, partisan enterprise. Actually, many politicians think making voting more challenging would be a good thing—as if proving you’ve suffered to vote is the way to make it meaningful. They cite the thousands of Iraqis who trudged for hours in order to vote and show off their purple fingertips. But it was not so long ago that certain groups in this country also suffered mightily to be able to vote. The time has come to instead make voting EASY for all eligible citizens. Legislation aimed at doing that deserves to pass easily, and it should.
Photo by Ken Hawkins via Creative Commons.