College Democrats: State laws discriminate, make it too hard to vote

Paul Egan | Detroit Free Press

LANSING – Democratic students at U-M and MSU are suing Secretary of State Ruth Johnson in federal court, alleging state voting laws — especially one that tends to force students to vote in their hometowns, rather than where they attend school — discriminate against younger voters.

"Young voters in Michigan have historically, and to this day, been the target and victims of voting rules and requirements that are both intended to and have had the effect of making it ... more difficult for them to ... exercise their right to participate in Michigan's elections," says the lawsuit brought by the College Democrats at U-M, the College Democrats at MSU and the Michigan Federation of College Democrats.

The suit, filed Thursday, asks a federal judge to declare unconstitutional a state law that requires a voter's residence for voter registration purposes to match the address on the voter's driver's license.

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The suit also asks the court to declare unconstitutional a state requirement that those who register to vote by mail or through third-party registration drives vote in person the first time they vote.

In combination, the two requirements "place nearly insurmountable barriers between many young voters and their fundamental right to vote," the lawsuit alleges.

Fred Woodhams, a spokesman for Johnson, said her office is "taken by surprise with what is seemingly an odd lawsuit."

Woodhams said the law requiring addresses on driver's licenses and voter registrations to match was already challenged in federal court, nearly 20 years ago.

Separating a person’s address for voting and licensing purposes "would cause confusion and lead to different addresses for people who thought they had changed both," he said.

Students can easily change their license and registration address to one on or near campus by visiting their local clerk or a Secretary of State branch office, he said. Also, Johnson sends a mobile election office to 18 college campuses around the state each election cycle to answer students' questions and allow them to register to vote at the address they prefer, he said.

The suit alleges that former state senator and congressman Mike Rogers, a Brighton Republican, was behind the 1999 law that requires most college students to vote where their parents live.

"The legislative history of Rogers' Law shows that, at the time the law was proposed, legislators were well aware of the disproportionate and disenfranchising impact its matching-address requirement would have on young voters, particularly college students, and that it was intended to have that very impact," the suit alleges.

The in-person requirement for those who register by mail or through third parties, signed into law in 2004, adds another Catch-22, the suit alleges. Students are more likely to register by mail or through third parties and the requirement prohibits students who register in that way from requesting an absentee ballot, according to the suit.

The case is assigned to U.S. District Judge Robert Cleland.

Contact Paul Egan: 517-372-8660 or pegan@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @paulegan4.