ASU students are not the only students affected by election date change

By: Bryan Weaver

Posted: 8/25/07

The controversy surrounding the upcoming municipal elections has become more and more interesting as it continues to unfold.

The saga began with federal officials allowing the city of Montgomery to move the date of the elections from Oct. 2 to Aug. 28 to allow military personnel the time to comply with a 42-day time period required by law to return mail-in ballots if a run-off were needed.

Shortly after the ordinance to change the date was approved, the ruling immediately came under fire by Alabama Democratic Conference Chairman Joe L. Reed who also happens to be a member of the Alabama State University Board of Trustees.

Reed brought indictments against the city of Montgomery claiming that they were breaching the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that protects the right of every voter to cast a ballot. Reed also claimed that by the city of Montgomery moving the date of the elections to Aug 28, it would disenfranchise students who attend ASU.

The city of Montgomery has a statute that allows citizens to vote in a municipal election if they are registered within 10 days of an election and must be a resident for 30 days.

Reed alleges that an election on that date would not give ASU students adequate time to participate in the elections.

However, ASU students are not the only students who are affected by the change in the election date. Troy State Montgomery, Faulkner University, Huntingdon College, and Auburn Montgomery also have students from every ethnicity that will be affected by the rescheduling of the initial election date, therefore, the issue of "disenfranchisement" affects all city colleges and universities.

In July, SGA President-elect Duncan Kirkwood held a rally in the Shuttlesworth Dining Hall in which he urged students to fight for their right to vote in the upcoming municipal elections.

Kirkwood was quoted as saying that the rescheduling of the municipal election was an "injustice and an attempt to strip ASU students of their voting rights."

I believe these allegations were ludicrous.

While Kirkwood is accurate in the fact that an election held in August instead of October would disenfranchise students who would like to participate, but cannot because of the 30 day residency, I do not believe that city officials were attempting to disenfranchise just "ASU students" when they came up with this idea.

Kirkwood said that he expects 2,000 students to vote in the municipal election.

Wishful thinking is fine, but the fact of the matter is that SGA can barely get 1,500 out of 5,500 students to vote in an SGA election, what makes Kirkwood believe that he can encourage more students to vote in a municipal election than the one that impacts them more - SGA elections?

If Kirkwood is going to rally the students on an issue as important as voting rights or the lack of, he needs to take the time and do the research needed to fully understand all of the issues involved.

When the local reporters asked Kirkwood whether he had voted in a municipal election before, he responded with a "no." When he was asked if he knew who the city councilman was for District 3, he did not know.

As a result, Kirkwood's credibility and respectability as a conscious and well-informed leader was undermined. An effective leader would first, educate himself before soliciting the support of others.

Because many of our students disenfranchise themselves by not exercising their right to participate in the political process, it was incumbent upon Kirkwood to emphasize the seriousness of the city's actions through an educational campaign.

The disenfranchisement of any group from voting is serious, however, we must take our own rights seriously before anyone else will.