On Wednesday, the Ohio Senate approved a two-year transportation budget plan that would cost the state over $7 billion, and the high-stakes cost isn’t the only controversy.
The bill explains several new programs for the Ohio Department of Transportation and a few other agencies, and outlines how the money allotted to them is to be spent.
The plan, called HB 53, would fund improvements for bridge and roadwork that would translate into 96,000 jobs. It would also require DMVs to, by July 2016, accept debit or credit cards for in-person license renewals rather than remaining cash-only and relax the re-tests for those who fail their driving test the first time around. It would also require those who run driver’s training schools to go through more schooling.
At the last minute, the Ohio House of Representatives and the Senate kept an amendment that would require new Ohio residents to obtain an Ohio driver’s license and register their cars in-state within 30 days of moving. This includes college students, who make up about 116,000 members of the Ohio population.
Essentially, if any college student in Ohio wants to regularly drive a vehicle or vote in an election, they must have an Ohio license, or they could risk getting misdemeanor charges and fines. Completing the steps necessary to do this would cost over $75.
At least 44 other states have requirements like this, said Ohio Senate President Keith Faber in a released statement.
“This is standard practice nationwide, and Ohio is a clear outlier on this requirement,” Faber said in the statement, The Review reported. “The Senate added a provision in the new transportation budget that would simply say if you declare residency in Ohio and plan to drive here, you should get an Ohio driver’s license within 30 days.”
Current Ohio laws allow students to claim residency, drive and vote while keeping their out-of-state licenses, and the state hasn’t set any particular deadline for registering and obtaining documentation. Ohio is among only a few states that don’t have a deadline for new residents to register cars and obtain driver’s licenses.
However, the barrier to voting, in which students can’t register to vote without an Ohio license, is fairly unique, especially due to Ohio’s huge student population.
Democrats, including Ohio Rep. Kathleen Clyde, have been comparing this new legislation to a poll tax that will threaten students’ right to vote.
“We’re talking about a lot of people, a lot of people’s rights impacted,” she told The Huffington Post. “I hate to see this trip up our young voters, our first-time voters, people that we want to welcome to Ohio, not put burdens up in front of them or punishing them for participating in their democracy in their communities where they’re going to school.”
On the other hand, Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted insists the new legislation is not exclusive, but inclusive.
“By registering to vote, you are declaring you are a resident,” he told the HuffPost. “We hope they become Ohioans, and we hope they want to vote here.”
The plan was sent to Ohio Gov. John Kasich for review on Thursday.
Here’s the cut-and-dry truth of the matter: if you’re living somewhere, you should have a say in what goes on there. It shouldn’t matter if you choose to get a new license or register a car. The transportation decisions you make in a state should not be directly affecting the volume of your voice.
As a college student, you’re living there for four years. It’s equitable to being a resident. You do have an interest in how the state is run, even if you’re not an officially licensed “Ohioan,” per se. College students are the next generation. They’re the people who could soon be running for office, proposing legislation and creating political change. But even more important, they’re people with a voice. This is the generation that state representatives need inspire when it comes to voting, so that one day, voting percentages can begin to increase.
Say you have a student who registers to vote when they turn 18, and then they move to another state for college and are therefore not allowed to vote. That’s four years of conditioning someone not to vote, and it’s likely that by barring them from voting during those first few years, you’re starting a trend of people just not voting. Why would someone make voting a priority when the states they’re living in wouldn’t make voting a priority for them?
Ohio has huge college towns, huge student populations and huge economies that college students are driving. The city of Columbus, for example, thrives on the business that students who attend Ohio State University create. These college students, even though they are just living there for four years, are living there, working there and supporting jobs there.
Perhaps some sort of temporary student voter program would be beneficial here, as it would be in any state. We’re just asking for any steps that can be taken to keep college students going to the polls and caring about elections. Give us the chance to be politically involved now, or you’re looking at a very disengaged future.
The Ohio Voter Rights Coalition, The Ohio AFL-CIO, ProgressOhio and others are petitioning Governor Kasich to veto this harmful provision in HB 53. One petition alone has close to 1,000 signatures. Please sign and promote this today, because Kasich could sign this bill at any time. Thanks!