Watauga GOP Continues War on ASU Students

The Watauga Republican Party just won't let it go ... their resentment against ASU students' voting in elections here. They apparently still cling to the mistaken notion that they were swept out of the County Commission because of massive voting by ASU students. A cursory glance at election returns might disabuse them of their mythology.

But some defeated Republican candidates for County Commission are reportedly circulating a petition calling on the Watauga County Board of Elections to deny students the right to vote, except for the office of president every four years.

Aside from the smallish constitutional issue of denying a specific class of people the right to the full ballot, and aside from the practical "mechanical" problem that local boards of election cannot unilaterally declare a certain class of voters ineligible to cast ballots, what are the Republicans hoping to gain? (And have they thought this through? What about the sons and daughters of Watauga residents who also happen to be students at ASU? Would they too be disenfrancised, by virtue of being enrolled at the University, or would the Watauga GOP recommend an exemption for native-born students? O the bookkeeping on THAT ought to be easy!)

Let's say this petition drive gets a thousand signatures. No, let's be wildly optimistic and forecast 3,000 signatures for denying the right to vote to ASU students. Let's say, for the sake of argument, that the prejudices against full citizenship for students is deep and even wide in Watauga County. What will the Republican Party reap for exposing and encouraging that prejudice with this petition drive?

Well, for one thing, they're bound to incite even greater student turn-out in future elections. And whereas the student vote in the County Commission races in 2004 was actually not all that high (as opposed to the students who went in and voted for a few of the top races and left the bottom of the ballot unchecked) and was in fact divided between Republican and Democrat candidates, we can pretty much guarantee that there'll be a strong swing among students against the Republicans in future local elections. And why not? Nothing motivates students like the notion that a bunch of adults don't approve of them.