The Lowe-down on student voting rights

—interviewed by Rebecca Taylor

Travis Luther Lowe got involved in voting rights as a student at William and Mary College in the fall of 2003. At that time, students living in Williamsburg, Va. were evicted for living more than three under the same roof. Because of this event, Lowe decided to run for city council, but when he attempted to register to vote, he was told that he should vote at his parents’ address.

Lowe has been active in student voting rights ever since. On Thursday, he spoke in ARH 302 about voting rights activism.

What happened when you attempted to vote?

I said I wanted to run for city council, and in order to be a candidate you have to register to vote, and I attempted to register as a member of the National Guard in Virginia and as someone who had intended on living in Williamsburg indefinitely and whose driver’s license was Virginian. ...

A week later I got a letter saying I’d be denied because I’m claimed as a dependent on my parents’ taxes. Also while I was registering I had to fill out a questionnaire that had not been previously administered asking things that were very student specific. Even things like, “Where do you go to church?”

What have you noticed townspeople being most afraid of? Why are they reluctant to let students vote?

I think if you look cross-culturally and from historical perspectives, students have been feared and are viewed of something to be afraid of by more established members of society because young people are the ones that are willing to engage and question some of the existing structures. Look at Tianamen Square or the 1960s.

In my experience, opposition has been that students are transient and have no vested interest in the long-term community. Really that argument I think is kind of absurd because the US Census Bureau determined the 47% of Americans move every five years. To penalize one group because they have some kind of defined transience is anti-democratic.

The main opposition is just fear of student takeover, but if you look at examples of where students have been granted the right to vote such as student friendly states like Wisconsin and North Carolina, that kind of fear hasn’t materialized.

Have you heard about the Danny Carroll incident?

I actually gave a speech in Portland, Oregon and used it on a big screen and talked about attitudes towards student voting. I loved that, it was a great flyer. To talk about how partisanship has played in to this…my efforts are non-partisan but you can’t ignore certain tendencies. However there are counter-examples. In Arkansas there was a notoriously conservative university being disenfranchised by local democratic county officials.

Do you think all students should chose to vote in their respective college towns, or can they be selective about voting in their original state versus their new state? Is being selective problematic?

There is certainly a point for the townspeople to argue when they see students voting based on swing states. But at the end of the day, if you look at all the arguments and weigh it all up, in states that allow students to chose, students should chose to vote in their college towns.

The reason being, just the amount of time we spend here …Does it make sense for us to participate in a democracy that has an affect on us only eight weeks out of the year or does it make sense to participate in the democracy that will have the greatest impact on us over time? I would say it is the latter.

Also, you are counted in the U.S. census as an Iowa resident, and as a result you are allocated tax money and help the town reach population designations that open up eligibility for the town to receive more money.