Ohio Republicans Push Law To Penalize Colleges For Helping Students Vote

Professor Daniel Tokaji was quoted in a Talking Points Memo article about a bill proposed by Ohio Republicans that would restrict Ohio public universities from providing residency documents to students used to help them vote. Ohio law requires voters to have lived in Ohio for at least 30 days immediately before an election, while public schools require students to have "gone to an Ohio high school or have a parent or spouse who lives or is employed in the state prior to enrollment," the story says.

Essentially, if the law passes, schools giving out-of-state students documents to prove residency in Ohio 30 days before an election, the schools would also have to consider the out-of-state students as Ohio residents and charge them the same tuition price as in-state students. Tokaji said the law is a blatant attempt at voter repression by Republicans and called it "shameful."

“The way that they’ve written this bill makes it clear that its only purpose is to suppress student voting,” he said. “What I’d say to the Republican Party is this is not only a shameful strategy, but it’s a stupid strategy because, you know, the Republican Party already has a signifcant problem with young voters. They’re on the verge of losing a generation of voters. Their path to victory is not to suppress the student vote, but to win the student vote.”

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