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Most of you probably heard about the ruling by Judge Jim Brands on election night that all college students in Dutchess County must vote by affidavit ballots, even if everything was completely in order. This was just one part of an effort to systematically harass, intimidate, and suppress the student vote orchestrated by the GOP across Dutchess County.
Some background information is in order. Up until 2000, Dutchess County was one of very few counties, possibly the only county in the entire nation, to deny college students the right to vote where they resided nine months out of the year. About two or three years prior to that, a group of students attending Bard College and Vassar College filed a class-action lawsuit against the County Board of Elections to process the registrations of students without subjecting them to discriminatory practices designed to prevent their registration from being accepted. While the case was tied up in the courts, a bipartisan committee was formed by the County Legislature to review the issue of qualifications and procedures for college students who wish to vote in Dutchess County. It concluded that "As a society we should encourage every class of citizen to vote, and remove every impediment to voting for every class of citizen." Then Republican election commissioner Bill Paroli disagreed. Paroli, however, found himself preoccupied after he was arrested for fraud, extortion, and several other charges relating to corruption, and resigned in disgrace. Republicans chose current commissioner David Gamache (last seen refusing to do his job) to replace him, who eventually relented and began to process the registrations of students without discriminatory practices.
I am a student at Bard College, located in the Town of Red Hook. Like a lot of Dutchess County, and indeed, like much of rural New York in general, Red Hook is a traditional Republican stronghold which is rapidly trending Democratic. Bard routinely ranks as one of the most liberal colleges in the nation; as you might expect, we aren't exactly popular with the Red Hook GOP. Me and about a dozen other students volunteered our spare time on election day to coordinate campus GOTV, keep track of student turnout, make sure that people can get to the polling place, etc.
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