OMS: Rock The Vote Slams Democrats For Suppressing The Student Vote

They should be ashamed of themselves. They are so afraid of Obama that they are willing to disenfranchise young voters. One Million Strong reports on Rock The Vote’s statement:

“Over the past week, several campaigns, candidates and political reporters have stated that college students who moved to Iowa to attend school should not vote in the Iowa caucuses.

“These statements are a frustrating and disappointing attempt to suppress the student vote, and are also legally incorrect. According to the Iowa Secretary of State, all Iowa students have the right to vote in the town where they attend college in Iowa.

…

“To tell students that they can only vote in the town that they came from, rather than in the town where they live, is a clear effort to disenfranchise student voters. Attempts on the part of campaigns to deter eligible voters from voting should be forcefully and immediately denounced.

Read more.

The American Prospect has a good run-down of how this is similar to Republican youth disenfranchisement tactics. They write:

When the Clinton camp voiced displeasure with Sen. Barack Obama for encouraging Iowa-registered, out-of-state college students to participate in the Jan. 3 caucuses, her campaign was taking a student voter disenfranchisement page right out of the Republican playbook.

Take this case in Maine. In January, a Republican state representative introduced LD 203, a bill that would have made Maine students ineligible to vote in their college town if they lived in university-owned housing while attending school. Proponents argued that college students, who may leave after graduation never to return, shouldn’t be offered the chance to shape local policies. They also cited allegations of students casting absentee ballots in other states while simultaneously voting in Maine elections.

However, according to the secretary of state and the registrar of voters in Orono, home of Maine’s flagship public university, no such voter fraud has ever been recorded. Even the bill’s author confessed that he had no evidence to substantiate the accusations.

Read more.

This reminds me of when the Senate Democrats tried to speed through the confirmation of a Bush appointee who had been suppressing voting rights among minorities and Obama had to stop them in their tracks.

UPDATE: Bill Clinton today told Iowa students that this issue is a “question of conscience.”