Imagine being told you can’t vote in local elections just because you are a college student. The new Republican House speaker in New Hampshire, William O’Brien, is trying to prevent young voters from exercising their right in the state. He is pushing for a few different bills; one would prevent many students from voting in the cities where they go to college unless their parents or themselves had residency in that city before.

Voting bills are not only being pushed in New Hampshire, but by Republicans in other states as well.

A bill that is being pushed in many states would end Election Day registration. O’Brien has said that Election Day registration, “unleashes swarms of students on polling places, creating opportunities for fraud.” It is obvious to us that his goal is pursuing this legislation is because he believes that students typically vote more as liberals. In a video that a Democratic Party staff member captured, O’Brien called college students “foolish.”

He went on to explain his beliefs about young voters. He said, “Voting as a liberal. That's what kids do. Students lack life experience, they just vote their feelings."

Democrats know what is really going on; Republicans are trying to eliminate some of the Democrats’ most important voting groups. They know younger people and minorities usually sway towards the Democrat side and they are determined to find a way to leave these voters behind. Thomas Bates, vice president of Rock the Vote said, “It's a war on voting.” Rock the Vote is a group that promotes the registration of young voters. It has started a campaign called “Voter Suppression is Un-American” to fight these unfair voting bills in Maine, North Carolina, Wisconsin and New Hampshire.

Republicans and Democrats clearly do not agree about how frequently voting fraud occurs. Republicans insist it happens, while Democrats say there is really no evidence to support that voting fraud is a problem. Doug Chapin, an election law expert said, "Election policy debates like photo ID and same-day registration have become so fierce around the country because they are founded more on passionate belief than proven fact. He is saying that there is no evidence to support voting fraud, so why should states be revamping their voting bills to fix a problem that doesn’t even exist?

This is why it is obvious to us that these lawmakers are generalizing college students as uninformed voters and trying to eliminate minorities from voting.”

Requiring state-issued identification could really hurt certain categories of voters. Republicans in North Carolina have been speculating about making this identification necessary to vote. The North Carolina State Board of Elections did a study where they found that African Americans would make up 27 percent of the 1 million voters who do not have state-issued identification. This clearly points out how legislation singles out minorities.

We agree with the courts in Georgia that deemed a similar bill unconstitutional because requiring state issued identification forces those who do not have identification to pay to obtain it. This creates a poll tax, which is absolutely unconstitutional and targets minorities and young people.

Therefore, the states would have to pay for these identification cards and it wouldn’t be cheap.

A study conducted in Wisconsin showed that this program could cost their state $2.7 million per year. We agree the money could be spent more wisely, such as in schools or in other programs.

This news should be important to students because it is always possible that Republican legislators in Arkansas could start looking at similar bills. We should voice our opinion about these bills in other states so that it does not end up happening in our state.

We deserve the right to vote at 18 years old because the Constitution guarantees it to us. The 26th amendment “prohibits the federal government and the states from forbidding any citizen of age 18 or greater to vote on account of their age.” Republicans are indirectly trying to exclude young voters from being able to exercise their right and we can’t just sit and watch.

How would you feel if you were unable to vote in the next election?