Inconspicuously enough, claims the Daily, by requiring that Michigan voters vote according to the address on their driver licenses ("Hindering the process," 11/16/99).
The Daily claims that this is a veiled attempt to squash student rights, primarily because the only people affected will be college students who vote in areas other than those indicated on their drivers' licenses.
First of all is the notion of voting "rights" - I'm not sure which ones the Daily believes will be reduced. It surely will not be the right to vote - this right has been guaranteed by the Fourteenth, Nineteenth, Twenty-fourth and Twenty-sixth Amendments to the Constitution. Students will be able to follow the time-honored traditions of absentee voting, or if distance permits, driving home to vote. Students all over the country have no problem with this nor do soldiers (a.k.a. adults of similar age to students) serving their country stationed all over the United States.
Perhaps the Daily believes that the right to easy voting will be abridged. After looking over the Constitution, I didn't quite find the phrase that says "The government shall pass no law that requires effort on the part of the voter to participate in elections." God forbid that to vote, students take some time out of their busy schedules by driving home or going to the Post Office to get an absentee voter form.
As Thomas Paine said, "What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly ... it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as freedom should not be highly rated." Perhaps while filling out the absentee voter form, or driving home, the average college student can think about the gravity of his or her voting decision and remember that in the past, U.S. citizens gave their life to ensure that future citizens would have the right to vote.
But there is another slant to this decision that the Daily ignores. Most students think that Ann Arbor's borders extend only to State Street, Washtenaw Avenue and E. Stadium Boulevard.
Those with cars may consider most of Ann Arbor to extend out to Briarwood Mall and Meijer on Saline Road. In fact, Ann Arbor extends much further than that (could you believe such a thing?). The places where most students don't venture are the places where most of Ann Arbor's permanent residents live - those who have a vested interest in the well-being of the city and who do not come and go every four years or so. Nobody stops to think how the residents of Ann Arbor feel when every year their concerns are subordinated to the whims of 18-22 year olds who want to change the world.
This is not to say that those students who change their driver licenses to Ann Arbor addresses have any more of an interest than a permanent resident, but at least it shows some dedication and effort to vote where they are registered.
Perhaps Rogers is more concerned for the actual residents of Lansing, rather than the temporary residents who pass through every four years.
If students want to vote, vote where they are registered. If that means driving 40 minutes to Bloomfield Hills, or walking 10 minutes to a Post Office to get an absentee voter form, then so be it.
Nobody ever said voting had to be easy, it merely must be available to all who are qualified.
If filling out an absentee voter form is as tedious to you as filling out a rebate slip for your mobile phone, then perhaps voting just isn't for you.
- This viewpoint was written by LSA senior Chris Georgandellis.
11-18-99
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