They Tried to Stop Us From Voting in '04. Now They're At It Again.

Written by: Kate Drazner on Sep 29, 2008 12:42 PM EDT

2004 was the first year I was of age to vote in a presidential election. It was my sophomore year at Colorado College, a notoriously liberal private college nestled in the picturesque Pikes Peak region of Colorado. However, around election time especially, life surrounding the CC community was not as idyllic as it may seem. CC is located in Colorado Springs, which some may recognize as:

a.) the headquarters of the anti-choice, anti-gay, anti-sex evangelical propaganda machine, Focus on the Family

b.) home of the anti-choice, anti-gay, anti-sex mega church, Newlife Church, which served as a backdrop to Pastor Ted Haggard’s political downfall

c.) a city so rife with right-wing conservatism it earned the nickname “The Evangelical Vatican.”

So you can imagine the kind of relationship that Colorado College had with its host city.

However, signs of animosity between the two were scarce under normal circumstances. Yes, there were times when conservative locals sent spies into our academic buildings to report back on what liberal propaganda we students were being brainwashed with, and yes, wandering into town with messy bed head and ragged clothing would sometimes beget a “dirty hippie!” tossed our way, but there really were no signs that could possibly warn us about what would happen when we tried to cast our votes that November.

Colorado College operates on the block plan, where students take one class at a time, so at about twelve-thirty in the afternoon, after most students had gotten out of class and had eaten lunch, groups of students began to walk to the polling station. That’s when the polling officials began to purposefully bottle-neck the line.

The polling officials in our precinct were told to tell students that using an out-of-state driver’s license as identification was prohibited for voting purposes, that out-of-state students had to have their birth certificate in order to vote. Voting rights organizations had anticipated this, and had sent lawyers to the polls to argue for each and every student who was told he or she couldn’t vote.

Something tells me this was exactly what the polling officials wanted, because this slowed the line down even more. That day, I was at the precinct from about twelve-thirty in the afternoon to about ten minutes before the polls closed. It was the first time I had ever felt suppressed as a United States citizen. Upon my first time exercising a right that women, minorities and young adults had fought so hard to universalize, this experience served as a poignant reminder of how precious that right was.

And now, four years later, it seems that the same guys have been up to their old tricks. El Paso county clerk Bob Balink has been accused of disseminating false voter eligibility information around the CC campus. Among other things, the office sent a notice to the Colorado College President’s Office that out-of-state students whose parents still claim them as dependents are not eligible to vote.

As much as this doesn’t surprise me, it also makes me cringe. This election is so close that a few false statements around key areas could make all the difference. What’s more, the fact that Republican vote suppressors are preying on young and inexperienced voters attempting to exercise this important right for the first time in their lives is inexcusable. These tactics attack democracy at its most fundamental root.

Students everywhere need to be mindful of these suppressive tactics, and come to the polls armed with the facts: all you need is to be registered, and to have some form of government-issued identification, no matter what state it came from, no matter what state your parents live in. From my experience, the students who stood firm, knew the facts, and refused to back down were the ones who got to the polls without the help of the lawyers.

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