Louisiana elections should be decided by Louisianans, not out-of-state students
Hanson Dai | Art Director
December 4, 2019
Coinciding with historic statewide voter participation, College Democrats empowered Tulane’s precinct’s 118% spike in turnout. Greater civic engagement promotes better local collaboration, but out-of-state students must evaluate their long-term Louisiana residency before participating in elections that directly impact permanent residents.
Students’ newfound proactivity is positive but demands an acute awareness of Tulane’s status as a private institution. Out-of-state students, especially the 80% planning to leave New Orleans, should scrutinize their personal stake in state elections before imparting judgements on New Orleans’ taxpayers.
In local elections and referendums, Tulane’s votes can make significant waves.
Tulane-area precinct observes 118% increase in voter participation https://t.co/VzjU24HTSg pic.twitter.com/BHb25VXAqJ
— The Tulane Hullabaloo (@tulanehull) November 24, 2019
For example, District 98’s race, Tulane’s state representative district, was decided by roughly 2500 votes. Similar measures on state referendums or proposed millage renovation also provide citizens localized outlets to reform New Orleans’ politics, initiatives out-of-state voters only marginally experience.
Eighty percent of Tulanians hail from out-of-state, enhancing Tulane’s isolation from New Orleans, which is sometimes referred to as the “Uptown bubble.” Even voters who are passionate about infrastructure problems like fixing roads and building hospitals are too disconnected from the city to be making these decisions.
Tulane’s precinct also decided ballot measures like Amendment 1, which would have extended property tax cuts on commodities destined for vulnerable coastal lands. Tulane’s opposition to this question indicates millennials successfully projected justified concerns over climate change’s local and international impact.
Regardless of students’ opinions, Amendment 1 would have regulated Louisiana’s energy industry, which critically serves as one of the U.S.’ top five-largest producers of natural gas and employs 260,000 workers. Louisiana’s children and workers ultimately bear the brunt of the consequences of these elections and deserve an uninfluenced discussion to shape Louisiana’s future.
Just as a Texas student studying in New York City should not vote on distant communal referenda like local preschool education, out-of-state Tulane students should not be influencing Louisiana’s critical referenda simply to make political statements.
That is not to say every Tulanian should refrain from voting in Louisiana since citizens do have a historic opportunity to make their mark by turning out in 2020. But out-of-state students should request absentee ballots from their home state and impact state and local elections where they have tangible concerns.
Rather than promoting turnout amongst students with nominal, temporary interests, political action organizations like College Democrats ought to prioritize civic engagement and turnout of disenfranchised citizens.
https://twitter.com/BrendanCuti/status/1192478966826840065
The priority of voter mobilization by campaign organizations must be aimed at permanent residents instead of temporary citizens who value state elections as opportunities to voice impassioned opinions.
Student voters must seriously ask themselves whether they feel comfortable voting on local issues that transcend party lines. While arguments for “performing your civic duty as an informed citizen” are commendable, if New Orleans is to define its own future, its elections must be decided by local citizens.
Don’t worry about it • Aug 4, 2020 at 12:04 pm
Yeah so this article is 100% right. As Tulane students, we already live in enough of a bubble and there’s no way that Tulane students intelligently all know the minute interactions in NOLA THAT THEY WOULD BE VOTING ON!
SMH, the people on here that are heavily triggered probably from states where their vote isn’t as important. Some of these responses are super embarrassing and childish
Student • Dec 10, 2019 at 1:43 pm
Even if it was the Tulane College Democrats that lead this mission (it was USG), the authors of this article made NO attempt to reach out to TCD for comment or perspective. Civic duty is important anywhere a person lives, and should actively be engaged with. This article should be rescinded and Edwin Wang and Michael Naish should reconsider the role of their voices and how they go about writing articles in the Hullabaloo because this was the definition of poor workmanship.
Elisabeth Gleckler • Dec 9, 2019 at 1:42 pm
I have a couple of responses to the article:
I think of this as a challenge to the Voting Rights Act (just passed, on party lines):
• Property: We could go back in time and only let people who own property vote. To vote, someone in New Orleans would need have ownership of a piece of property to define their status as a local resident, and therefore have the privilege to vote. Remember when property defined the right of participation?
• Knowledge: We could make a test to make sure that the person knows enough to vote. In my class, we examined sex education policies, red lining, racial history, and the 1927 flood. I think many “non-residents” would pass that test. Remember when the South had tests like this? It was not about student status.
• Time: Students are living in New Orleans, at least as undergraduates, for four years. Please, tell me at what point do people become residents of New Orleans? It would be interesting to hear the political arguments to start drawing a line on the calendar to say when someone living here deserves the right to vote. Heck, I have been here 30 years and some people say that I am still an outsider because I did not go to high school here.
Students live here, pay taxes when they buy food, fuel, clothing, books, or beer. They have the right to vote where they live. Unless you want to test everyone with property, knowledge, and proof of ancestry, we should stop questioning student participation.
But, it may be out of student control. States across the south are finding ways to suppress the youth vote – closing polling places, challenging residency addresses, etc. Texas, Alabama, Mississippi are trying to limit access. Do we want to add Louisiana to that list?
This Is Legitimately Hilarious • Dec 9, 2019 at 1:07 pm
We all thought the Hullabaloo couldn’t get any dumber, but congrats! Y’all nailed it.
student • Dec 5, 2019 at 3:43 pm
This article has a few basic ideas that are erroneous in nature:
First, it ignores the fact that the gubernatorial election encompossed a variety of issues which do affect the day to day lives of Tulane Students such as access to abortion, LGBTQ legislation, civil rights laws, housing laws and regulations, and taxes. Every single person in a state jurisdiction is affected by legislation passed in that state, regardless of where they were born. Just because I have an illinois license doesn’t mean that i don’t have to pay sales taxes or that i can avoid driving on pothole covered roads or that im not impacted by housing regulations.
Second, this article suggests that is is easy, feasible, and impactful to cast an absentee ballot in your home state. Especially for college students, voter disenfranchisement is a huge deal. Many localities are late to count mail-in and absentee ballots and the rate at which votes cast by 18-22 are denied for “spelling errors” or other reasons is ridiculous. Furthermore, given that the governor’s election was particularly contentious and close in nature, the value of a vote cost here is actually higher and more meaningful than a vote cast in gerrymandered or single-party dominated states elsewhere.
On top of all of that, I would argue that voting actually demonstrates that out of states DO have invested interest in the state of louisiana and local issues. The group of students that you are targeting in this article who do not care about NOLA outside of the 4 years they are at Tulane are probably not the ones casting votes.
An especially interesting assumption that you make is that Tulane Students somehow changed election results or vote radically differently to other people who have lived here their whole lives. This isnt even close to true and the amount of Tulane Students who voted is nothing compared to the total amount of ballots cast. While our district had an 118% increase in voting rights, there is no doubt that there were still so many eligible voters who did not vote. College students consistently have the lowest turnout rates of any age of any eligible voting group. Part of the point of education is to prepare you to be an informed and active citizen. Voter Registration and participation is a huge part of that and is important for citizens of every single state.
Finally, you didn’t even get the information right about the voter registration efforts. It was primarily the CEC (part of USG) that was organizing the drive, the college democrats and other political organizations cooperated but were certainly not the sole group pushing this important cause. Also, the program that was used to Register Voters (Turbovote) wasnt just eligible for out-of state students to use to register here, it also was for in-state but not registered students to use, and for out of state students to register back in their home jurisdictions. You argue that the organization should have focused more on civil engagement, and they do, ask literally anyone, there are so many efforts for much needed voter education and literacy. But more so than that, voting is the most crucial and immediate part of civic engagement, it isnt separate.
I suggest that you take literally any political science class. thanks.
Stone Agren • Dec 5, 2019 at 3:33 pm
I respect the fact that there are underrepresented minority voices across the country that are being systematically oppressed and disenfranchised via gerrymandering and partisan redistricting – it’s a fact! But this article fails to take into account two things:
1) Students who vote in Louisiana elections are unable to vote in elections in their home state if that election falls within the same election cycle, meaning that those students who voted did so because they felt that the issues on the ballot here were more pressing than those in their home states – an active, informed decision.
2) Multiple efforts were made to educate Tulane students about the ballot, the issues on that ballot, and the implications of this election, by a variety of political organizations, nonprofits, and even the Hullabaloo. To claim that students who voted in the last election did so without any care or concern for the impact of that action is simply incorrect.
You can’t just stumble into the polls and cast a ballot because this country has made it so hard to exercise that most basic of civic rights. Multiple studies have been done showing that the early people begin to vote the more likely they are to do so throughout their entire lives, meaning that by engaging students NOW they can be more empowered to continue to advocate for those issues that they’re passionate about for life. This article is absolutely and categorically incorrect for saying that people at this school shouldn’t vote, because the ONLY Tulane students who cared enough to go out to the polls were those who were informed and cared enough about the state of this state to do so.
Finally, the voting efforts on campus were lead by the Civic Engagement Committee under USG, not Tulane College Democrats.
Triggered?? • Dec 5, 2019 at 3:32 pm
Imagine being so fragile that you’re mad that people are exercising the very rights people have fought and died to protect. This article is shameful, if I wrote it, I’d drop out and go join the circus.