North Carolina GOP Bill Would Impose Poll Tax on College Students

In 21st century Jim Crow, it is not just African-Americans whose voting rights are being put risk by neo-Confederates. In North Carolina, the tea partyists who have recently taken over the legislature and governor’s mansion are targeting any group that reliably votes against them, including college students of all races.

A bill filed recently in the N.C. legislature, where Republicans hold veto-proof majorities (which are irrelevant because the governor is also a Republican), would impose a poll tax on the parents of college students who register to vote in the town where they go to college, which the Supreme Court has ruled is their right:

Senate Bill 667 was filed Tuesday. That bill continues the state’s assault on voting rights with this gem: Parents would face a tax penalty if their children register to vote at their college address. The bill with the moniker, “Equalize Voter Rights,” states that “if the voter is a dependent of the voter’s parent or legal guardian, is 18 years of age or older and the voter has registered at an address other than that of the parent or legal guardian, the parent or legal guardian will not be allowed to claim the voter as a dependent for state income tax purposes.”

The bill would also require voters to have their vehicles registered at the same address as their voter registration. That also could cut down on college student registration, since many students maintain their vehicle registration in their home counties.

This bill is clearly aimed at limiting the voting participation of college students who want to exercise their right to vote in the college communities where they live. Among college-age students in the last elections, Democrats have had an advantage, so the measure seems to target potential Democratic voters. To that, House Minority Leader Larry Hall, D-Durham, had this retort that should give tax-conscious GOP lawmakers some pause: The bill “would raise taxes on middle-class families who are trying to put their children through college … I refuse to believe the Republican leadership has become so desperate to limit voting for partisan gain that they would be willing to support tax increases to achieve that goal. It is the definition of arrogance to penalize parents with new taxes just because their children want to exercise their right to vote in the community they live in,” Hall told WRAL.

The bill was filed by Sen. Bill Cook, who represents a district in eastern North Carolina, a region where there are at least two large universities, East Carolina and UNC-Wilmington. East Carolina, in particular, has long been a popular out-of-state school for students from the Northeast.