"I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education. This is the true corrective of abuses of constitutional power." - Thomas Jefferson 1820

"There is a growing technology of testing that permits us now to do in nanoseconds things that we shouldn't be doing at all." - Dr. Gerald Bracey author of Rotten Apples in Education

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Monday, April 4, 2011

An Education for the St. Louis University 18-24 Year Old Voting Group in Election Procedures.


There is a remedy to the 18-24 year old group voting dilemma. According to an article in the SLU student newspaper:

The Missouri Legislature has officially resurrected the controversial Voter ID Bill. This bill, if passed, will require all who plan on voting in the state of Missouri to present a valid Missouri ID at the polls, regardless of their home state.

The writer does not like this move by the Legislature:

We, as the next generation, are told that we are the future and we need to vote to become an active part of society, but then we’re excluded from doing so, finding ourselves at a politically helpless but seemingly apathetic dead end. Yes, it makes sense that those who will be most affected in the long-term should have the right to vote, but those who are affected in the short-term have a right to the benefits of law, too.


If you are not a permanent resident in your dorm room or apartment, you can register in your hometown and obtain an absentee ballot for your state or locality. Questions: should part-time residents have a vote in the locality where they are not considered full-time? Should those who hold driver licenses in other states have a "right" to vote in a different state?

Dual state residents (such as snowbirds) find a way to vote. They use absentee ballots in the state where they hold permanent residency. They accept the fact they can only vote in one locality or the other. These voters apparently don't see themselves as "politically helpless" and don't view a rule as having to have one permanent residence to vote as an "apathetic dead end".

Even snowbirds and college students have a right to the benefits of law. It just takes some planning to request your ballot and mail it back in time to be counted.

1 comment:

  1. Perhaps he hasn't learned the meaning of "excluded" yet. It means prevented from. They are not excluded from voting, only limited to voting in one place. We can only hope he is a freshman.

    ReplyDelete

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