Protecting Student Voting Rights

The National Campaign for Fair Elections has been at the forefront in protecting the voting rights of students across the country. All too often, states try to restrict students’ ability to vote at their campus address or by absentee ballot when away at school. We are currently working with student voter registration groups in states and on campuses across the country to ensure that young people have the right to vote.

Statesboro, Georgia

Georgia has a history of student vote suppression and intimidation, and that history continued in 2007 in Statesboro, Georgia.  A group calling itself Statesboro Citizens for Good Government filed a blanket challenge to the eligibility of 909 student voters from Georgia Southern University.  Fortunately, the National Campaign for Fair Elections, Georgia Election Protection, and its partners were able to act on the students’ behalf and all challenges were withdrawn.  Click here to read the full story.

Prarie View, Texas

In 2004, the Lawyers’ Committee litigated a historic lawsuit in Waller County, TX. Prairie View A&M University (PVAMU) is a historically black college in Texas whose student body is about 90% African American. On November 10th 2003, in the local paper, The Waller Times, the Waller County District Attorney Oliver S. Kitzman threatened students at PVAMU with felony prosecution for "illegal voting" if they registered and voted at school. The Lawyers’ Committee, on behalf of students at PVAMU filed a lawsuit and preliminary injunction on February 5, 2004 to ensure that PVAMU students were able to freely exercise their fundamental right to vote. A second lawsuit was filed on February 17, 2004 in response to a decision by Waller County officials to reduce the number of days and hours of early voting for the primary. Waller County, like all jurisdictions in Texas, is forbidden by the Voting Rights Act from implementing any voting change without first demonstrating to the U.S. Department of Justice that the change does not worsen the position of minority voters. Waller County failed, however, to submit these changes for pre-clearance.

The case was settled on February 26, 2004. Mr. Kitzman apologized and released a statement encouraging Prairie View A&M University students to register and vote in Waller County. And in the Voting Rights Act enforcement case, the county was prevented from reducing the amount of early voting hours at polling places nearest campus.