North Carolina Lawmakers Introduce Bill To Penalize Parents Of College Student Voters

[Tx4obama]

North Carolina Lawmakers Introduce Bill To Penalize Parents Of College Student Voters

A Republican legislator in North Carolina is pushing a bill to penalize parents if they have a child in college who chooses to vote where they study.

State Rep. Bill Cook (R) introduced SB 667 this week, which would raise taxes on families with college students if the child registers to vote at school rather than at home.

WRAL has more:

Senate Bill 667, known as “Equalize Voter Rights,” would remove the tax exemption for dependents who register to vote at any address other than their parents’ home.

“If the voter is a dependent of the voter’s parent or legal guardian, is 18 years of age or older and the voter has registered at an address other than that of the parent or legal guardian, the parent or legal guardian will not be allowed to claim the voter as a dependent for state income tax purposes,” the bill says.

-snip-

Full article here: http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/04/04/1818791/north-carolina-student-voters/

[Xipe Totec]

1. So, a Republican wants to raise taxes? That will go over well.

[upaloopa]

2. An attempt to suppress student votes.

Repubs were I live in Santa Barbara always try to block UCSB students from voting. The students vote for Dems and against ocean front development.
Repubs say the students don't live here but actually they do on voting day.

[MADem]

4. He has no clout over the parents of students studying IN North Carolina.

He's trying to screw kids who are studying outside the state, telling them "You have to vote IN NC or we'll punish your parents!"

This isn't voter supression, it's trying to dictate where a student may vote. A distinction and a difference--his end result may be that he pisses off enough kids so that they all vote against him, via absentee ballot, in sufficient numbers to kick his ass to the curb!

[mwooldri]

6. it is not just NC parents and out of state students...

This can affect in-state students too. Would a student of UNC - Chapel Hill have to return home, sometimes a couple of hundred miles away, just to vote ? This is indeed voter suppression.

[MADem]

8. S/He'd have to get an absentee ballot.

Not necessarily return home to vote--attending school is a valid reason for being away from one's domicile.

It would cost the voter a bit of postage.

I think it might cost this legislator his next election!

[mwooldri]

14. Come to think of it...

If there was a big absentee vote, these votes will not necessarily be concentrated in traditionally democratic areas - they would be more dispersed. The younger vote (if they vote) tend to vote for the democratic party candidate.

[MADem]

3. I think -- assuming students get their absentee ballots and bother to vote -- that this

might not go the way the legislator wants.

Some kid from NC studying at BU or Northeastern isn't going to "harm" that Republican by voting in Massachusetts.

However, after being exposed to all of the "librul" attitudes of the Commonwealth, that student just might mail in an absentee ballot to his home state that is helpful to the D team.

Not sure what this guy is trying to accomplish...

[LonePirate]

5. More proof that Rs cherish power and control over everything else

If they are willing to sacrifice one of their alleged core beliefs of not raising taxes in order to maintain some sort of perceived election advantage, then they are as unprincipled as we all know them to be.

[left is right]

7. I thought that the Census defined a person’s residence as the place that said person spent the

majority of their nights. So, college kids living in a dorm resides in the city where the dorm is. Wouldn't it then be voter fraud to vote in any election but where you resided?

[MADem]

9. I lived in Europe and Asia for decades and still paid MA taxes.

MA was my "home of record" and the place to which I intended to return.

I voted from the Middle East once--for Massachusetts candidates in a local election.

There are many ways to define "home of record" or "residence," and being away from a residence as a consequence of military duty or education does not NECESSARILY obviate status as a resident.

[laureloak]

10. Would also require their vehicles registered at the same address as voter registration.

http://www.wral.com/senate-bill-seeks-to-curb-college-vote/12298695/

The bill would also require voters to have their vehicles registered at the same address as their voter registration. That also could cut down on college student registration, since many students maintain their vehicle registration in their home counties.

[laureloak]

11. "These bills will protect students from such abuse."

..."college students in Buncombe County changed the outcome of a race for a county commission seat in 2012.

"That race showed how easily college students can be manipulated like pawns," DeLancy said in a press release. "These bills will protect students from such abuse."

[Cali_Democrat]

12. They know North Carolina is no longer a solid red state

This is their way of "correcting" that problem.

Students tend to vote Democratic.

[blkmusclmachine]

13. Change You Can Believe In!

[GoCubsGo]

15. Thank you, North Carolina.

You are making South Carolina look better every day. Even South Carolina hasn't been pulling this kind of shit, or putting out bills attempting to override the Constitution.