GOING AT IT BACKWARDS:

Bill to bar students from voting in college towns called 'obviously unconstitutional' (JOHN DISTASO, 1/20/11, Union Leader)

A veteran Democratic attorney says Republican-sponsored legislation that would bar students from voting in their college towns is an unconstitutional effort to pick and choose who should be allowed to vote in New Hampshire.

Paul Twomey of Chichester, who frequently represents the Democratic Party on key contested issues, on Thursday called on the Republican leadership to denounce the bill and the Republican House majority to kill it. [...]

Twomey said the bill is an "obviously unconstitutional" under the 26th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees the right to vote to all those 18 years of age and older.

He noted the constitution says the right to vote "shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of age."

Twomey said that after the amendment was ratified in the early 1970s, many federal court cases came up addressing whether a government entity could limit a student's right to vote.

He said the leading case originated in New Hampshire. In "Newburger v. Peterson," he said, an appellate panel ruled in 1972 "that you can't require that there be an intent to stay in a state, either permanently or indefinitely."

Twomey noted that many Americans are constantly relocating, and, "Nobody can say with any real certainty how long they intend to stay in a particular location."

"You cannot have a separate test for a student that is different than any other person," Twomey said.

Twomey said in the 1972 case, the court rejected the notion that students should return to their home towns or receive absentee ballots from their home towns in order to vote.

"People have the right to vote in the community in which they wish to engage in their civic life," Twomey said.

"Political leaders don't have the right to choose their voters. Voters have the right to choose their political leaders."

"If a person who is physically present wishes to engaged in the civic life in the place where they live, they have the right to do that.

"That's what the right to vote is," Twomey said, "and Bill O'Brien and the Republican Party do not have the right to say that this class of people has to vote somewhere else."

Of course they should be allowed to vote here if they consider themselves members of the community. They should also register their cars here and their parents should not be able to take deductioins for them as if they were dependents, since they've moved out of the house.

Posted by Orrin Judd at January 21, 2011 5:47 AM