Debunking Media Myths About Student Voters (in NC)

By Jay DeLancy, Carolina Plothound, August 8, 2013.

Leftist groups in North Carolina and beyond continue to hold a losing hand in the voter ID game; but with the help of the highly partisan media, they’re trying to bluff their way out of it.

Case in point is the voter ID bill and the superb corrections the NC Senate made to the final version in the area of student ID cards. The House had allowed for 76 different college ID cards to count as “valid ID” for voting purposes; but the Senate, realizing the potential for fraud, simply said “no.”

Before the ink was even dry on the bill, the Soros-backed “Blueprint NC” mobs began a campaign to reverse this sensible law. Using their typical agitation rhetoric, one leftist activist called the student ID provisions, “unnecessary, mean-spirited changes that target and punish college students who want to participate in the civic life of their college community.”

While not nearly as colorful, the truth is that no college students will be denied their right to vote. The only impact will be that students will be forced to do one endeavor they have never been required to do before voting: To put it bluntly, they will soon have to . . . well . . . to think before they vote.

In case those words offend any college students reading this column, I have some news that might soften the blow of this “draconian” measure: You won’t need to think too soon, because the Legislature delayed implementation of that provision until January 1, 2016.

But be forewarned! One day college students will have to become as intelligent as their military peers who usually vote by absentee ballot from their true domicile. Of course, students could always “go native” and change their address on their driver license and bank account; but these simple tasks require maturity and forethought.

It’s ironic that people being shot at and blown up (in defense of our nation) can somehow manage this process without complaining; but in a real insult to the more responsible college students, critics of the proposed NC voter ID law push for allowing college ID cards by claiming that college students need a break because they’re “too stressed” or “too busy” to follow the same election laws the rest of us have to obey.

As if it were a coordinated effort with the Blueprint NC crowd, CBS “News” happened to find a perfect poster child for voter ID victimhood in the form of an NC State student named Molly McDonough. She told the reporter that she has no driver license, and CBS left the impression that the poor child will be “disenfranchised” and unable to vote. But the crafty “news” reporter left out a few facts.

First, anybody who doesn’t drive can obtain a “non-operator’s ID card” from the NC DMV that will allow them to do things like entering a Federal building, boarding an airplane, picking up certain types of cold medicine or perhaps . . . obtaining their college ID card.

And second, the US Supreme Court has clearly said that college students should vote from their true “domicile,” which is presumed to be the student’s home of record, unless the student demonstrates otherwise. So, students who change their license and checking account to their college address would easily meet that minimal standard and could vote locally. People like Molly would need to vote with an absentee ballot from her legally defined “domicile.”

One uncertainty that remains in this bill involves people caught breaking the law by failing to change their DMV record within 30 days of their moving to their new residence. The VIP-NC position is that such low-involvement voters have no legitimate business in swaying local School Board or County Commissioners races.

Those failing to make such a small effort to qualify for local voting could still vote—but the VIP-NC position is that they should either be given a ballot for the federal elections or be given an absentee ballot–just as hundreds of thousands of 18- to 22-year-old Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines do every year.

We’ve asked a few Legislators for clarification on this question: How will election workers handle any voters who present an NCDL with a home address in a county that’s different from their voter registration address?

We’ll do our best to let our readers know of any responses we get.