Today Laughlin McDonald, director of the ACLU's Voting Rights Project, wrote an op-ed in the Atlanta Journal Constitution about a group that calls itself the Statesboro Citizens for Good Governance. The group is challenging the rights of 909 students at Georgia Southern University to vote in city elections; their challenge asserts that since the students are not residents of Statesboro, they shouldn't be able to vote in local elections. Laughlin points out that this is unconstitutional:
This is not the first time students have been challenged in Georgia. In 1980, a similar challenge was made to student voters at Young Harris College. In dismissing the challenges, the court ruled it was unconstitutional to apply a presumption of nonresidence because a voter was a student. Other such challenges have been made, and rejected, in other states.
With election season in full swing, another voting rights issue to keep an eye on is the voter ID laws. One case before the Supreme Court, Crawford v. Marion County Board Election Board, will determine whether Indiana's voter ID law unconstitutionally burdens citizens' right to vote.
