There are quite a few states where Republicans are trying to enact the "make it harder for Democratic-leaning groups to vote" part of their agenda: up to 32 states, in fact. Mostly these measures would require photo ID to vote, a requirement that would disproportionately affect younger and African-American voters. Naturally the justification is "voter fraud"—usually code for "brown people voting" and much less common than "fraud committed to potential voters."
But while anyone who follows these efforts knows their partisan intent, and understands the racism frequently involved, Republicans usually at least try to make it sound aboveboard. Not so much in New Hampshire this time around, though.
New Hampshire's new Republican state House speaker is pretty clear about what he thinks of college kids and how they vote. They're "foolish," Speaker William O'Brien said in a recent speech to a tea party group.
"Voting as a liberal. That's what kids do," he added, his comments taped by a state Democratic Party staffer and posted on YouTube. Students lack "life experience," and "they just vote their feelings."
New Hampshire currently has same-day voter registration, which Republicans in the state legislature would like to put a stop to. Additionally, they would prevent college students from voting in the towns in which they attend college unless they had prior residence there. Instead, students would have to vote in the towns they came from, even (or maybe especially) if that forced them to vote in another state.
The sponsor of the bill ending same-day registration is also particularly irked by students voting:
Average taxpayers in college towns, he said, are having their votes "diluted or entirely canceled by those of a huge, largely monolithic demographic group . . . composed of people with a dearth of experience and a plethora of the easy self-confidence that only ignorance and inexperience can produce."
Their "youthful idealism," he added, "is focused on remaking the world, with themselves in charge, of course, rather than with the mundane humdrum of local government."
And that's Dartmouth students. Just imagine how hysterical these guys would be about black and brown people voting if New Hampshire was any less than 95% white.