Considering stories like this might not be so untrue

Ohio Students Work Around Voter-ID Law

Students often have trouble registering to vote — or voting — where they are enrolled in college. For yesterday’s presidential primary in Ohio, many students devised creative ways to cast their ballots while still complying with the state’s voter-ID law.

“We were really pushing to get people to do absentee voting,” said Namrata Kolachalam, a senior at Oberlin College. Ohio law requires voters to bring government-issued identification or a utility bill to the polls, but such proof of residence is not required to vote absentee.

In 2006, because of the voter-ID law, many students in Ohio had to vote provisionally, Ms. Kolachalam said. This year groups at Oberlin and Kenyon College decided absentee ballots were a better option.

“It’s the easiest way to avoid the ridiculously backwards law,” said Matthew Segal, a senior at Kenyon and executive director of the national Student Association for Voter Empowerment. Mr. Segal is lobbying state officials for a more inclusive law — allowing, for example, private-college IDs — in time for the general election.

Meanwhile, Oberlin had another solution. The college issued students what Ms. Kolachalam called a “fake utility bill” — a statement of telephone and Internet services marked with their dormitory addresses — for them to present at the polls. The local board of elections had said it would accept the document.

William Amos on November 2, 2008 at 1:23 PM

Again not as crazy as it might sound

Wednesday: The Other Place is a day shelter serving about 200 homeless people, most of them black. They hang out, stay warm, and receive services such as job training. There’s also a free health clinic. The center’s director quiets the crowd in the day room and I make our vote-today pitch. There are lots of questions and doubts.

“I don’t have a photo ID.” If you vote early, all you need is the last four digits of your Social Security number.

“I’m a convicted felon.” As long as you’re not currently in state prison, you’re entitled to vote. In fact, the only crime that permanently disenfranchises you is election fraud. (I wonder where Kenneth Blackwell is now?)

“This early voting is a scam. They’ll just throw it away.” This is the most persistent objection, born of generations of being shut out of the electoral process and doubly confirmed by 2004’s campaign to shut out black voters.

But a half-dozen people climb into the Obamobile for the trip downtown. None of them has ever voted before. They range from 51-year-old Wesley to 18-year-old Nicole, who is shivering with the flu but can’t wait to vote.

Things are beginning to move. And a federal appeals court has turned down the Republican challenge to Golden Week.

William Amos on November 2, 2008 at 12:44 PM