Last week, former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist released a campaign video at the University of Florida talking about on-campus voting.
In the video, Crist, a former Republican now running as a Democrat, criticized the state’s current Gov. Rick Scott, for trying to prevent on-campus voting.
“It seems to me that we all ought to call on Gov. Scott to let the people vote,” Crist said in the video.
Crist included the video on his website with a form for people to send a campaign donation, showing Crist sees this as an issue important enough to raise money off of.
Crist’s use of voting as a campaign issue shows that Democrats might be able to use voting as the next issue to try to get youth vote issue.
In North Carolina, there is fertile ground for Democrats who want to make this a campaign issue. The voter ID law passed last year prevented the use of student IDs as a form of identification.
Meanwhile Watauga County’s Board of Elections was criticized when it moved a polling location off of Appalachian State University’s campus.
The UNC-system Association of Student Governments criticized the decision.
But there has been some indication from state Democrats that student voting could be an issue in the 2014 elections.
Last year, U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan, D-N.C., sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to review the state’s law, saying that the law would prevent a number of groups from voting, including students.
But it remains to be seen if the issues of voter identification and on-campus voting are enough to get young people to the polls.
View from the Hill is a political blog by Daily Tar Heel staff writers. Any opinion expressed in it does not represent the Daily Tar Heel. Email the blog coordinator at dthviewfromthehill@gmail.com.
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