My Little World
I live in a small town, Pataskala, Ohio; located near the center of the Ohio in Licking County. Just down State Route 16 is another small village, Granville; home to Denison University, my alma mater and the reason I’ve lived my entire adult life here. This morning, the Licking County Board of Elections affirmed the “right” of Denison students to vote in local Granville elections. On the surface, that’s great!
But deep down there is a real concern that forced the Board of Elections to this statement. It wasn’t a “high and mighty” issue of National or even State import. It was about the Granville Exempted Village School District asking for the town to pass an income tax to support the schools. After a close vote passed the tax, 3586 for to 3444 against, some of the local townspeople challenged the right of Denison students to vote.
Over a thousand Denison students who live in the dorms are registered to vote in Granville Village Precinct C, making up about half of the precinct’s voters. 778 voted in Precinct C this last election, with 546 for the tax and 242 against. That’s 69% for, 31% against. Only five of the fifteen precincts in the school district approved the levy; it was a close contest in almost all.
So some opposed to the levy attempted to disenfranchise the students, claiming that they could not “legally” identify themselves with the proper paperwork required by law. The students countered that the law allowed them to present a utility bill as verification of their residence, even if the bill showed they paid no amount. They presented the utility bill paid by the university in their name, one that the state was required to accept.
When the United States was founded, voting was truly limited. Not only did voters have to be adult (21), white, males; but they also had to own property in the jurisdiction. The belief was that owning property gave them a “stake” in the community, while those who just lived there without that stake shouldn’t have a voice.
Things have changed over the last 231 years. We have recognized that everyone has a stake in where they live, whether they own property there or not. We have accepted the creed that every voice should be heard, and every vote counted. At least, that’s what we teach in school and what we say in speeches; it’s the “Schoolhouse Rock” version of our democracy.
In Granville students have been making a difference since the 26th Amendment to the Constitution was passed in 1971, lowering the voting age to 18. As a member of the Denison Student Government in 1974, I helped register many students to bring Granville into the 20th century. It wasn’t a high and mighty social cause: we wanted Granville to stop being a “dry” town and allow for alcohol sales. We managed to pass the regulation for the village, making it easier for residents, and student-residents at the University, to get legal beverages. It was fitting that Denison’s first big electoral impact was about beer; it was at the time, and probably still is a big part of Denison life.
The community was fine with that change: today the Main Street is lined with upscale restaurants and bars. But some folks in Granville don’t want students to have a voice in “their” town, and in this era of voter suppression, they have found sympathy from Larry Wise, the Republican Chairman of the Board of Elections. While he grudgingly allowed the students their right, he followed it up with this statement:
“…Until legislation is either changed, corrected, amended, clarified, whatever, we are stuck following those guidelines and directives issued by the Secretary of State,” Wise said. “Every board (of elections) in this state faces the same situations and the fact that we cannot set our own guidelines. … We have to follow (those guidelines) until we’re told to do something different.” (Newark Advocate – 11/17/18)
Oh, if only he could get “unstuck” from these regulations he could take away the right of those students to vote where they reside. Oh, if only the law allowed, he could make sure only the people he wants to vote are allowed to vote (no he didn’t say this, but it seems a logical extension of his quoted statement.)
And that’s the point, here in Ohio and across much of the nation. There’s a view that the right to vote is a political strategy to win elections, not an inviolable right guaranteed by the Constitution. As long as voting is “strategic,” then making voting harder, complicated, and inconvenient for those who might have a differing view will continue to be a legitimate political strategy. We will remain a government “of the people who agree with me” rather than the aspirational “…government of the people, by the people, and for the people.” We will remain a government of “tribes” rather than a nation of “E Pluribus Unum” – out of many, one.
The Wise man spoke the truth – “We are stuck”.