May 7, 2008

Indiana and North Carolina Outcomes

Posted by Sarah Burris at 6:19AM

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In the most exciting news I've seen on election coverage, The Washington Post declares young voters to be one of the winners of last night's election.

"No age group has been more ridiculed for their lack of participation than those under 30. But in Indiana that age group comprised 16 percent of the overall vote while those 65 or older comprised 15 percent. Under 30s went for Obama 61 percent to 39 percent, a margin that all but neutralized Clinton's 44 percent margin among older Hoosiers."

And those were the ones who were able to vote! The US Supreme Court decided to uphold Indiana's Voter ID law they "rejected arguments that Indiana’s law imposes unjustified burdens on people who are old, poor or members of minority groups and less likely to have driver’s licenses or other acceptable forms of identification."

What was rejected by the Supremes was seen in Tuesday's elections. According to a release by the Student PIRGs

"Student PIRG New Voters Project staff stationed at polling locations near Indiana campuses today are beginning to hear from young voters turned away at the polls for a failure to meet voter identification laws upheld by the Supreme Court last week....

19-year-old Angela Hiss, a sophomore and computer science major at the University of Notre Dame, was turned away from the polls this afternoon, as she attempted to vote in her first election. After arriving at her polling location, she presented several forms of identification - her school ID, a piece of mail that showed her campus address and an Illinois driver’s license – but was misinformed that she could not vote because she could not show in-state ID. Poll-workers, according to Hiss, also did not advise her that she could cast a provisional ballot, as required by state and federal law. Instead, they suggested visiting local Department of Motor Vehicles to obtain the in-state identification required by Indiana’s newly-upheld law...

19-year-old Allyson Miller, a sophomore at the University of Notre Dame and volunteer at a local children’s clinic was similarly turned away from the polls today. An Indiana resident since the age of five, Miller left her driver’s license in her dorm room, and arrived straight from class at the polls with her school ID and registration confirmation papers from the County Registrar. Upon arriving, however, poll-workers did not allow her to vote without a state-issued ID. "I plan to come back because voting is a big deal to me," said Miller, "but it’s a huge inconvenience, especially with a final tomorrow."

19-year-old Becky Jenkins, a sophomore and member of the tennis team at Butler University was also unable to vote in her first election today. "I didn’t know that I had to have an Indiana ID," she said after she was turned away from the polls for attempting to cast her ballot using a driver's licenses issued by the State of Illinois. When asked if she would instead cast a provisional ballot, Jenkins also said her travel plans wouldn’t allow her to."

Similar accounts were heard by elderly nuns who were also prevented from voting

"The nuns, all in their 80s or 90s, didn't get one but came to the precinct anyway. One came down this morning, and she was 98, and she said, 'I don't want to go do that,'" Sister McGuire said. Some showed up with outdated passports. None of them drives.

"They weren't given provisional ballots because it would be impossible to get them to a motor vehicle branch and back within the 10 days allotted by the law, Sister McGuire said. "You have to remember that some of these ladies don't walk well. They're in wheelchairs or on walkers or electric carts."

According to the Student PIRGs

"The law, which requires voters to possess in-state or federal identification, such as an Indiana Driver’s License or federal passport, has been widely criticized for creating additional voting barriers. Three incidents of student voters turned away from the polls documented by Student PIRG staff in past two hours are included below..."

Further, th law also caused a problems between private and public schools when private school students were told that their student IDs were not "state issued" identification and as such students at DePauw and Notre Dame were not able to use their student IDs as valid forms of photo identification to vote. One student "was not offered a provisional ballot when he and several other DePauw students were turned away at the Putnam County Courthouse."

According to the New York Times Indiana's law "allows voters who lack photo identification to cast a provisional ballot, then appear at their county courthouse within 10 days to show identification. Chief Justice Roberts, who grew up in Indiana, said during the argument of the case in January that such requirements are not onerous."

This, clearly, was not done in the situations reported above. When asked about difficulties with the new law a representative from the Indiana Secretary of State's office said

"We've had nothing earth-shattering," she said. "We've done extensive education on this."

According to CIRCLE young voters make up 20 percent of the eligible electorate in Indiana. With CNN exit polling available we see that Sen. Obama won the 18-30 demographic 61/39 percent. But he also won the 30-44 demographic 56/44. Despite that, Clinton eked out a victory.

CNN speculates that the last minute influx of Republican voters that voted for Clinton was part of conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh's directed strategy. Learn more below:

"Did GOP voters really cross over to create havoc in the Democratic primary by voting for Hillary Clinton, as he’d asked his listeners to do?

Roughly one in ten of the state’s Democratic primary voters were Republican — and that group did vote for Hillary Clinton, 53 to 47 percent over Barack Obama....

For whatever reason, self-identified conservative voters did overwhelmingly support Clinton – two out of three cast their votes for the New York senator."

In North Carolina young voters account for 21 percent of the state. According to CNN's exit polling Sen. Obama won all demographics except for over 60 years old. The 18-29 year-old voters went for Sen. Obama with 74 percent of the vote and 30-44 year-olds voted for Sen. Obama by 63 percent. North Carolina did not experience the problems that Indiana did, and the early lead that Sen. Obama took remained stable as results came in.

The Kansas City Star reports that young voters and African American voters lifted Sen. Obama to his overwhelming victory in North Carolina.

Left in the contest are West Virginia (5/13), Kentucky and Oregon (5/20), Puerto Rico (6/1), and Montana and South Dakota (6/3).

Republican presumptive winner John McCain continued his lead against Rep. Ron Paul who has not yet dropped out of the race.

In an early morning release CIRCLE estimates

"At least 20 percent of eligible Indiana citizens and 15 percent North Carolina citizens under the age of 30 participated in last night's Democratic primary, according to preliminary estimates by CIRCLE (The Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning & Engagement). Young voters supported Democratic candidate Barack Obama. In Indiana and North Carolina, unlike most other states, we can only estimate the level of participation in the Democratic primary since there were no Republican exit polls conducted."

And... the race goes on...