Screw the Vote
Rolling Stone exposes the attempts of local officials in college towns to suppress the student vote.
“This is just how we’ve always done it,” county election commissioner Patricia DiSpirito told Rolling Stone. “A dorm is not a permanent residence — it just isn’t.”
In fact, DiSpirito is flat-out wrong. Federal and state courts have clearly established that students have the right to vote where they go to school, even if they live in a dorm.
Undergraduate and graduate students in Ann Arbor should form a coalition with renters and endorse candidates on an issue-by-issue basis to exercise some real power in this city. Call it the Ann Arbor Voters League or something like that. I think GEO has not done enough in this area and LEO should be getting involved too. MSA is going to restart the Ann Arbor Tenants Union and that’s a start. City officials don’t consider students to be citizens and that needs to change. Students and renters combined with progressive homeowners (not NIMBY liberals but real progressives) could really skake up this pseudo-liberal town. I’m sympathetic to the Greens but I think the way to go is to compete in the Democratic primaries where turnout is key and use the campus as a base for organization but also address themes beyond immediate student concerns.
posted by Matt on May 7th, 2004 at 5:14 pmThe problem is that the majority of students don’t vote; couldn’t care less. Too busy with their cell phones, I guess
As far as local progressives go, there are only two. Me and my friend, Jay
posted by danno on May 7th, 2004 at 5:38 pmwell, since ann arbor has a super majority democrat council (what like 1 republican on coucil), one idea would be to work on changing the local Republican party to suit our needs. The other option would be green.
I don’t think that A2 is a good place to try and change the democrats, they see no threat to thier rule and so have less intrest in serving (what would be till its built up) a smaller groups interest, they already think they know what the majority (those who will be voting them back in) want
oh, there are lots of progressives in this town, but i wont get into that issue
posted by Anonymous on May 8th, 2004 at 8:09 amWell, at least one reason that the students don’t vote, at least when it comes to local elections, is that the majority of decisions made don’t affect them, and they don’t know anything about those that DO affect them. While the students absolutely have a right to vote in Ann Arbor if they want to, the fact remains that this ISN’T a permanent residence for them, and as such they have little interest in changing the government.
Setting up a “voting block” might be one way to counteract this, but most of these kids are here for four years (five at most), and then move on.
posted by Reagan on May 8th, 2004 at 12:27 pmBut what is a permanent residence, when people spend a lot of their lives moving around these days? Four years is a fairly long time by current standards.
posted by ann arbor is overrated on May 8th, 2004 at 12:43 pmIf you guys really want to get what you want, create a coalition that will help UMich design and build an Olympic style village specifically made for grad students….complete with grocery stores, pharmacies, watering holes, etc. etc.
It’s not like there isn’t enough land on North Campus for this.
Sooner or later a smart bean counter at the U will figure out that a development like this that doesn’t have to pay any property tax will be a HUGE cash cow that would help bring the UMich budget in line in a big, big hurry. I would kill to be able to own rental property that isn’t subject to property taxes.
You want to change the housing situation at UMich, this is it. And the city would be completely powerless to stop it…
All you would need is a couple of smart UPlanning students and a few accounting majors, and you could lay it out for the administration with no problem.
You’d never have to deal with lame landlords again, and we wouldn’t have to listen to the NIMBY’s bitch about the student “slums” anymore. Everyone would win.
Except the NIMBY’s would finally figure out that the city needs the students to make the budget work. I.E. “oops, we don’t have any money this year”.
posted by todd on May 8th, 2004 at 2:41 pmDon’t U of M students have a proven history of voting for “mickey mouse” in student government elections? Maybe someone at the paper would know.
posted by Steven on May 9th, 2004 at 12:49 pmI reject the argument that students are just passing through and are not permanent residents and are not a potential force in city politics. On my street between Liberty and Jackson, at least 1/4 of the homes have changed ownership since I moved here less than four years ago, and probably closer to 1/3. Yuppie homeowners come and go quite frequently here. What city council listens to is the homeowner associations. Why shouldn’t renters and students create similar permanent organizations to represent their interests.
Graduate students have an even greater stake in this because of the high rental prices and the longer residency status. I wouldn’t be surprised if the average PhD student stays in Ann Arbor longer than the average homeowner, in certain parts of the city at least.
The Democrats have a super-majority locally but they have proven they will listen to organized interest groups. If a voter coalition could demonstrate an ability to mobilize several thousand members, especially in low-turnout primaries, city leaders would start to pay attention fast to some of the affordable housing issues.
posted by Matt on May 9th, 2004 at 2:12 pmTodd’s right.
That’s what Yale did. Early in this century, most students lived in boarding houses around campus. When Yale wanted to expand and let in more students, the students pointed out that more students would lead to more housing problems because the slumlords around campus charged high rents. As a result, Yale invested in “on campus” housing (really, near campus, since Yale buildings are integrated into the surrounding commercial districts), as well as facility improvements, including entertainment venues, golf courses, other recreational facilities, as well as buying up much of the rental property around campus. Then, they gated off these housing quadrangles, allowing only keyed entry, and called them “colleges”. Now “colleges” are used as a selling point.
People in New Haven are angry because they feel that the housing market (and the entire local economy) would be healthier if students lived in non-university owned commercial properties. They want Yale to stop building housing, and have even threatened to try to charge Yale property tax on the property devoted to housing and food service.
Yale, of course, has been fighting such a change. The most recent word from the state is that Yale can be charged local property taxes only on commercial properties — buildings that house things like J. Crew, but not anything that has to do with the educational mission of the university — including housing and feeding students on campus (last I heard, they were still fighting over the golf course, which has private, paying members).
Yale now makes “voluntary contributions” to the city budget, instead of paying taxes. This pleases no one but Yale. It could work for UM, too.
posted by Anna on May 10th, 2004 at 10:48 amOh, and I should add that the only people who were happy during Yale’s labor strikes last fall were the local restaurant owners. Turns out that when you house and feed students on campus, restaurants don’t get nearly as much business as they would otherwise. That’s probably something for Ann Arbor residents to ponder next time they feel like grumbling about student slums.
posted by Anna on May 10th, 2004 at 10:59 amAnna,
Aren’t Yale’s housing actions also part of its ongoing secession from New Haven? Selling no-crime zones for anxious prospective students? I’m not sure this sort of gated community model is desirable here.
But the North Campus idea is a good one and a lot of people are working on projects right now, including a number of planners. Regarding that, interested people should consider attending this hearing:
On Tuesday, May 25 at 7:00 p.m. in City Hall (2nd floor), the City of Ann Arbor Planning Commission will hold a public forum
posted by Matt on May 10th, 2004 at 11:38 amon the draft Northeast Area Plan. The draft NE Area Plan makes land use recommendations for about 500 acres of undeveloped land in the north and east sides of Ann Arbor, for the Lower Town area, as well as UM owned land on the periphery of North Campus.
I wasn’t saying that Yale’s actions were good for New Haven (or even, in many senses, for Yale); I meant to point out how economically advantageous it has turned out to be for the university. Personally, I think Ann Arbor ought to look at the New Haven example, and do what it can to remain, or be more, student-friendly.
Few host towns are happy with the local university. They’re either dissatisfied because the students rent and make housing more scarce, or they’re dissatisfied because students live on campus and don’t contribute to the tax base and local economy.
posted by Anna on May 10th, 2004 at 12:18 pmUm. Just a note, because everyone here seems to have missed it, about why Ann Arbor’s dorms don’t have the political clout they could: Because voting address is directly tied to the address on your driver’s license in this state, something Engler did years ago to specifically undermine the voting power of students. Many students keep their driver’s license addresses at their parents’ place of residence for insurance purposes. Many other states don’t have the voting address as explicitely tied to the license, and so make it easier for students to register to vote in a place where they simply live most of the time.
posted by js on May 10th, 2004 at 3:13 pmThe drivers license scam seems kind of creepy, not to mention unconstiutional. Since student votes are going through one of their Republican phases, this may end up backfiring on the GOP
posted by Lucky jackson on May 11th, 2004 at 10:29 amI never had any trouble voting. The first time I voted was in 1992 as an off-campus dwelling undergrad still using a NY state driver’s license. In fact, I didn’t get a Michigan license until 1998 or 1999. I’m pretty sure I used my gas bill to prove my Michigan residency each time I registered — I know that’s what I used the first time, since I had a roommate and that was the only utility in my name.
posted by Anna on May 11th, 2004 at 11:08 amYou were either voting before the law was enacted (which, since I believe it was in ‘95, you were), or you were listed as a resident of Ann Arbor. Since there’s no provision for temporary or school residences, many college students don’t change their permanent address to their school address (which they would have to do under the law), because doing so would make them ineligible for insurance policies that require a child to have their permanent address coincide with their parents’. For more, see here.
posted by js on May 11th, 2004 at 4:25 pmVoting registration is only tied to driver’s license if you have a MI license. The out of state people actually have it much easier.
posted by Almond on May 11th, 2004 at 4:27 pmHow does one get “listed” as an AA resident? I didn’t have a MI driver’s license until ‘98 or so, so I got listed somehow that was not tied to my license. I even moved away for a year in ‘95, so I would have been reregistering with a Pennsylvania license in ‘95. I don’t really care much about this for my own sake, but it’s probably useful info for others who do want to vote in AA and do not want to change their MI driver’s license address.
One way I can think of to get around this strange driver’s license rule is to get a passport, which is easy enough. You can (in fact must) list your current mailing address, since they send it to you at that address. You can get a passport by filling out a form and bringing along a picture to the post-office. Also, I believe it is a simple matter to get a new passport with a new address, even if you have one that hasn’t yet expired. It’s probably also pretty simple to change the address on it, without even getting a totally new passport. That must be a valid form of ID for voting.
posted by Anna on May 11th, 2004 at 10:25 pmThey do not print your mailing address in your passport–it only lists your city of birth. My passport was issued in 2003, so I think it’s pretty up-to-date format-wise.
posted by Alex on May 11th, 2004 at 11:11 pmAnna- Did you pay Michigan income taxes? That was what Wayne State wanted for my girlfriend to prove she was a Mi. resident. And as for the license/voting regs., it automatically updates your Mi. license with the address you register to vote at, and vice versa. I don’t think there’s a “getting around it” unless you’re from out of state and are willing to declare Mi. your state of residence.
posted by js on May 12th, 2004 at 8:55 amJS — Prior to registering the first time in MI, I had filed income taxes in Mass and NY but not MI because I worked on breaks and summers in both of those states and only babysat under the table in MI. The year I moved back to AA after Pennsylvania I filed taxes in PA and MI. In both cases, I had out-of-state licenses. Maybe post ‘95 you had to be filing in the state of MI to register without an in-state license. I know a utility bill was enough when I registered for the first time. I don’t know of any way for out of state students to “declare” MI their state of residence, but that might be worth looking into.
posted by Anna on May 12th, 2004 at 9:39 amYou are allowed to declare MI residence in filing a MI tax return, and many do so since it’s much easier than the non-resident paperwork. You should be able to register to vote here after doing that, though I wouldn’t know how since I switched over my driver’s license when I got here.
posted by Nick on May 12th, 2004 at 11:06 amNick- I hope you registered to vote at the same time.
posted by js on May 12th, 2004 at 3:35 pmHas it occured to anyone that perhaps some out of state students don’t register in Ann Arbor because they still want to vote in their home town elections?
As an out of state student that’s what I did… and yes, there are definitely things I would like to vote for in Ann Arbor, but quite frankly it’s pretty important to me to still have a hand in what goes on at home.
posted by art student on May 12th, 2004 at 11:20 pmResidence can be in different places for different purposes. Residence for the purposes of paying in-state tuition is made unconstitutionally difficult. On the other hand, court rulings have made residence for voting purposes quite easy.
In East Lansing, where MSU students are roughly 75% of the adult population, and where for years there was a student Democratic organization which conducted voter registration, absente ballot drives, and effective GOTV (get-out-the-vote) students have played a huge role in local politics.
The entire East Lansing city council is elected at large, nonpartisan. (We would have loved a ward system because it would have cemented student control over city government: 18,000 students live in the dorm system alone, 10,000 more in off-campus student neighborhoods, and about 6,000 more people live in family housing.)
East Lansing Democrats understood that the student vote was vital to their success, and they showed respect for student interests. For years, roughly 1971 to 1991, students could veto antistudent candidates in city council elections by voting 90% for somebody else.
Unfortunately, since I left, the screamingly antistudent (mostly Republican) faction among townies became ascendant, while student voter turnout plummeted. If you think Ann Arbor townies are down on students, you have never been to East Lansing. All of those harsh housing rules designed to prevent and roll back student rental housing and severely punish students for the slightest misbehavior were enacted since then.
Meanwhile, Ann Arbor was being run by Republicans in the 1970s and 1980s. Not all of those Republicans were extremely conservative, but they were doing all kinds of things that students and liberals and Democrats objected to.
Yet, to the astonishment of us in East Lansing, nobody in Ann Arbor was at all interested in organizing UM students to vote, or doing ANY of the things that had become routine in East Lansing: the annual door-to-door voter registration drive, campaigns which communicated effectively to students, GOTV, etc.
Ann Arbor politicos, we thought, were much more interested in having self-regarding debating societies than actually getting voters to the polls. And of course they sneered at us just for being from East Lansing.
Indeed, even now, any time you bring up the idea of campaigning to students, or doing GOTV in student precincts, the longtime pols roll their eyes and say it’s a total waste of effort, and you’re a fool even to suggest it.
All that being said, UM really is different from MSU in ways that are relevant to politics.
(1) In East Lansing, candidates and volunteers could easily campaign door to door throughout all student housing; such access has been impossible for years in Ann Arbor due to the higher crime rate. (Of course, now that East Lansing is experiencing a wave of violent crimes, closing the dorms will follow.)
(2) Statistically, the students who are MOST likely to vote in local elections are the poorest ones, the ones who are actually employed in student jobs, the ones who are getting little or no money from their parents.
As a general rule, students getting large amounts of money from home keep their voter registration there, and (due to the inconvenience) usually don’t vote at all.
Students living in the cheapest housing at MSU were orders of magnitude more likely to register and vote than students living in the most expensive housing. The ones who were working and taking out loans couldn’t afford to live high.
But wages for student jobs have stagnated, and tuition has soared. The type of student who was eager to vote in local elections probably can’t afford to go to UM. Indeed, they probably can’t even afford MSU any more, which partly explains the decline in student voter turnout in East Lansing.
And then there’s the awful drivers license law, but this is way too long already ….
posted by Larry Kestenbaum on May 12th, 2004 at 11:34 pmHey Larry, are you running against anyone else?
posted by js on May 13th, 2004 at 9:02 amjs
I’m unopposed in the primary, so in November, I will be the Democratic nominee for County Clerk & Register of Deeds against Republican incumbent Peggy Haines.
posted by Larry Kestenbaum on May 13th, 2004 at 12:27 pmAnd why should anyone vote for you? Aside from your well-groomed facial hair, of course.
posted by js on May 13th, 2004 at 11:13 pmjs
Why? Because I have extensive background in elections, far more than the incumbent did when she took office.
Because, as Clerk/Register, I will be able to resume the role I had as county commissioner, as the county government’s chief advocate for attention to computer and network security issues.
Because I believe that the goal of election administration should be inclusive, to maximize participation in elections, and that the clerk should be a statewide advocate, where necessary, for improvements in election law to make voting easier, the intricacies more understandable, the process more efficient, secure, and trustworthy.
Because I believe that the clerk/register’s office should strive to make public information and records more accessible (within limits of privacy, security, and cost).
Because I believe that each and every person who comes to the office should be treated with the utmost courtesy and respect, something which requires ongoing support and training for front-line staff.
Because I believe the Clerk should be an advocate for making jury service as brief and efficient as possible.
Because Republicans have held the office for seven decades. The last Democratic county clerk in Washtenaw was elected in 1932 and defeated in 1934. Partisanship is directly relevant here, because the clerk leads the redistricting process in the county, and makes appointments to fill vacancies in other partisan (and policymaking) elected county positions.
Because a great many respected politicos and activists have endorsed me and support my campaign, including former members of Congress Lynn Rivers and David Bonior, state reps Chris Kolb (the first openly gay member of the Michigan legislature) and John Hansen, current and former mayors such as John Hieftje, Bob Harris, Mike Homel and Alan Israel, and county commissioners such as Jeff Irwin and Wes Prater.
I don’t expect my facial hair to get me any votes, but I have had this beard for almost 25 years. Nobody would recognize me without it.
posted by Larry Kestenbaum on May 14th, 2004 at 1:35 amSounds good. Dave DeVarti seems pleased that you’re running as well.
posted by js on May 14th, 2004 at 8:33 amSounds good, Larry - I wish you the best of luck. And yes, JS, I did register to vote here at the time - though I did hold out as a Californian long enough to vote in the recall. That absentee ballot was one of the funniest things I’ve ever read.
posted by Nick on May 14th, 2004 at 12:58 pmLarry, I think that the Register of Deeds web site is difficult to use and cumbersome (and has an grammatical error right on the front page — a heading reads “requesting copies for real estate documents” rather than “of real estate documents”). I live in Ann Arbor, but work in the Flint area where the Genesee County Register of Deeds website is far more user friendly. If you’ll fix this you have my vote.
Pete
posted by PeteM on May 17th, 2004 at 11:09 amVery much agreed that the Clerk/Register web site needs a lot of improvement.
posted by Larry Kestenbaum on May 18th, 2004 at 1:31 am