Republicans continue their utterly shameless campaign to make voting as difficult as possible for anyone who isn’t likely to vote for them. In Ohio, they’re trying to pass a bill that would punish schools that help students register and vote at the university rather than where they come from.
Now Republicans in Ohio have come up with a new approach. In Ohio, eight of the 14 public universities routinely provide students with documents that make it possible for them to register to vote at school. But in the state House, Republicans are pushing a budget amendment (pdf) requiring schools that issue those documents to charge the student only in-state tuition, even if the student otherwise would pay the higher out-of-state rate. Under Ohio’s scheme, the student votes and the school gets punished…
Ohio universities say that lowering the tuition for everyone who wants to use their right to vote at school would cost the system $370 million a year.
There is one and only one possible purpose to this bill, which is to make it more difficult for college students to vote. Why? Because they tend to vote Democratic. There is no level below which they will not stoop.