Combating College Voter Suppression

This article by Sophia Scott is published by Harvard Political Review. Here is an excerpt:

College undergraduates have significant voting power. If it is harnessed effectively, students have the potential to influence election outcomes nationwide. There are nearly 20 million undergraduates, yet millennials have the lowest voter turnout rates out of any generation. For example, despite the best efforts of initiatives like the Harvard Votes Challenge, as of 2016, only 77.6%of Harvard’s undergraduates were registered to vote, and merely 57.8%of students actually cast their ballots in the presidential election.

So why is voter turnout so low among college students?

Many have attributed this phenomenon to a lack of interest or sense of civic engagement among young people, but in reality, this is not only a result of voter apathy. Instead, the significant obstacles and inconveniences intrinsic to voter registration and ballot-casting while in college inhibit college students from accessing the polls — a phenomenon many experts have likened to large-scale voter suppression.

Read the full article here.