The Arizona State Legislature drew statewide backlash last week when Republican State Representative Bob Thorpe filed two bills aimed at changing the voting rights and cutting social justice classes for college students in Arizona. House Bill 2260 would in effect disallow any student living in a “dormitory address or other temporary college or university address,” to use that address to register to vote. Maricopa County Recorder Adrian Fontes, who oversees voter registration in Maricopa County, said that the bill is both unconstitutional and unenforceable. “It violates the First Amendment, it violates the due process clause and it violates the equal protections clause,” Fontes said. “I would think a constitutional conservative like Thorpe would have looked at these things.” Fontes, who made student polling locations and voting rights priorities in his campaign, said that he would stay committed to those goals and staunchly opposed the bill. “This is disenfranchisement on its face,” he said. “It treats one particular class of eligible voter different then another eligible class of voters.”
Student political leaders and activists on both sides of the isle decried the bill as a blatant attack on the rights of students. The president of ASU Young Democrats, Zakary Ghali echoed the recorder’s sentiment. “Students are the people who spend nine or more months out of the year in this district living at that address,” Ghali said. “I don’t understand why a legislator would go out of their way to make sure someone isn’t able to vote.”
Likewise, the President of the ASU College Republicans Kevin Calabrese said that the bill goes too far. “College students should be allowed to register to vote from their dorm addresses as long as all the existing requirements are satisfied,” Calabrese said. “There are a lot of students who live in the dorms for a year or two … and eventually decide to reside in Tempe after they graduate.”
In regards to the bipartisan opposition to the bill, Calabrese said that regardless of party, no college student would support the bill. “I don’t see who would be in support of it as far as college students go,” Calabrese said. HB 2260 is currently awaiting assignment to a committee.
Full Article: Arizona legislator takes aim at University students in first week of session – The State Press.