Should Students Be Worried About Voting?

The new Voter ID bill has pissed a lot of people off...and this article from the New York Times basically gets the idea across that students are screwed...and I suppose I just feel it's simply unhelpful at the least, and somewhat misleading at the worst.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/27/opinion/keeping-college-students-from-the-polls.html?_r=2

Sure, it points out the problems with voter ID that are very real and will bar many people from voting if they approach the polls in their current situation, however, it completely fails to report the many options you have as a student, low-income family member, or any other "disenfranchised" group the article claims the law hurts.  I get it...the law is completely inconvenient for many people. It requires action on the part of the voter to ensure their right instead of having the right automatically. It sucks. It's not really fair and it causes a lot of problems that probably don't make the thing worth the benefits in the first place.

But the one thing it doesn't do is tell you all the options you have to pre-emptively avoid the very issues it points out. Sure...telling people the problem is one thing, but this article makes it seem unavoidable. "All students are screwed no matter what", and that simply isn't the case. If you take some proactive action, you can find out how you can make sure you vote in the right place on time.

I guess my problem isn't what he's saying...it's how he's saying it combined with what's not said. The article is "ALERT! DANGER! GOP HATES YOU AND THERE'S NOTHING YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT" when it could have easily been "Voter ID is not fair, but here's how you can protect your rights."

One of those, I think, is a much better way to report news...and one of them is aimed at creating enemies, sparking arguments, and creating grudges. There are a lot of things going wrong in politics, but throwing up your hands in horror is not the right approach to getting through it. Despite the article being true, it only seeks to enhance the divide between parties and I think that's bad.

Read, educate yourself, and find out how you can take care of your rights instead of just yelling and screaming that they are being taken away.


Here's some pages that address those problems
http://gab.wi.gov/elections-voting/photo-id
http://www.ncsl.org/?tabid=16602

And contact your representatives with other questions. You're not helpless and don't let people make you believe you are. Take accountability for yourself and that which is required of you and you'll be OK. You may not think it's fair that you need to take responsibility for having the right documentation, but if you really care about your right to vote, you have the ability ensure that you'll have it. Be informed. You're not screwed, you just have to actually look ahead