Mason of Mullins, South Carolina, was not there when the landmark Voting Rights Act passed in 1965, she was in Fort Benning, Georgia. As an Army wife, she and her family bounced between bases across the country until 1972, when she returned to her hometown and voted for the first time. 

“Until I heard about voting, I didn’t know too much about it,” Mason said, “So evidently we had a reason we couldn’t vote, because if I had known, I’d have been voting since I was 18 or 19.”

Voter suppression now works in discreet ways: underfunded education, misinformation, and intimidation are all contributors to low voter turnout in minority communities. For Mason, along with millions of other Black Americans, the ability to vote did not magically appear when the Voting Rights Act was passed. Rather, it took years for her to learn about the importance of voting and her eligibility.

“I voted after they put us where we could vote,” Mason said, “And then I might have waited a few years after that before I started. But at one time, it was just for people that was in a higher class than we were.”

Mullins has a substantial class and racial divide, with Black residents being disproportionately impoverished and underrepresented in local politics. Today’s  presidential election has only furthered these divides, causing many Black Americans to pledge Democratic loyalty now more than ever. 

For Mason, her support of the Democratic party lies mainly in socioeconomic issues, as she grew up in a working-class, Southern family. 

“I am straight up Democrat because I was born a Democrat,” Carolyn said, “They care about where I come from. I had to be a Democrat cause I didn’t fit in no category where we was rich.”

Mason voted in the Presidential as well as local elections, which have moved to the forefront of Mullins politics recently. Driving through the town, lawns and empty lots are littered with campaign signs for community politicians, many of them Black Millenials. The dilapidation of the once-thriving tobacco industry in Mullins, along with shutdowns of small businesses and the ever-growing class divide, has pushed Mullins voters to make their voices heard. 

“I heard that the mayor that we had was leaving, and he didn’t want to do it no more,” Mason said, “And our brother decided he would run. I voted for him because I felt like he would help us, and he wanted to do the right thing.”

As for the Presidential election, Mason shares similar sentiments, and there was no question as to whether she cast her ballot for Joe Biden or Donald Trump. Biden’s political affiliation, and the reputation of his opponent, automatically gained her vote.

“I voted for [Biden] because he, it sounds like he could be more helpful,” Mason said, “I voted for him because he was a Democrat. And you know, these black people, their  poor. And I’m in that race. So if he can help me, I needed him to run for president.”

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Avoiding long lines at the polls is one factor that affects student’s decision of where and how to vote.. Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.

Kate Locke has had to make two choices in the Nov. 6 presidential election: between President Barack Obama and Republican nominee Mitt Romney, and between North Carolina and Colorado.

Locke, 24, one of thousands of university students who attend schools outside their home states, has the right to register to vote in either state, according to a Supreme Court ruling.

Of the 12.9 million full-time students pursuing secondary degrees, the Department of Education estimates that approximately 13.7 percent, or about 1.8 million students, attend schools outside their home states.

North Carolina is where Locke grew up, but she attends the University of Denver in Colorado, which is considered a battleground state in the tight competition for Electoral College votes. She has an opportunity to decide how to make her vote most effective.

Of course, some students may not be aware of the Supreme Court ruling of 1979, in Symm v. United States, that students cannot be subjected to any voter registration requirements beyond those required of other residents. That decision affirmed the right of students to vote in either their home or their school state.

For students pondering where their votes could have the most impact, groups such as Count More may help. The Count More website asks students to list their school state and their home state. It then uses algorithms and information from Nate Silver’s FiveThirtyEight column in the New York Times to provide information about the 2008 election results in both states, the 2012 voter registration deadlines and a recommendation on where to vote, regardless of political allegiance.

Malini Runnells, 22, said she decided to vote in her home state of Virginia “since it is a battleground state and my current residency in Massachusetts has been solidified as a ‘blue’ state.”

For some students, however, practicality may be a bigger factor than politics in making the decision. They may find it difficult to get to the polls, worry over an absentee ballot not arriving, not want to change registration or miss a deadline.

Ana Barbic, 23, chose to vote in her school state of Pennsylvania, though she had intended to vote in her “highly influential” home state of Florida.

“I realized I was running out of time to sign up for an absentee ballot when someone in a parking lot offered to register me in PA,” Barbic said, “I just wanted to make sure I would register on time, so I took the opportunity. I also prefer the experience of voting in a precinct versus filling out a ballot in the mail.”

Even those students who succeed in registering on time may have trouble voting in states that have instituted new regulations requiring state-issued identification documents. School IDs may not count.

The Brennan Center for Justice, at New York University’s School of Law, is one of several institutions that pay special attention to the voting rights of students. In a September press release, the Brennan Center asserted that, since the 2008 election, 19 states have increased voting restrictions in various forms by minimizing early voting, setting stringent residency requirements or requiring IDs.

Court rulings in a number of states have set aside restrictions, at least for the 2012 elections. Sixteen states will require non-photo identification, but only students in Tennessee, Georgia, Indiana and Kansas need worry about strict photo ID requirements this year.

Even without such requirements, the turnout among young voters is usually modest. The most recent Gallup poll of young voters found that only 58 percent of those aged 18-29 said they would vote on Nov. 6, a 20 point drop from the unusually high turnout for young voters in the 2008 election.

In the battle of home-state versus school-state for the 2012 election, students have had to add voter identification and other restrictions to the list of items to be considered.

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