Arizona Republican. State Rep. Bob Thorpe believes that the college students actually “dilute” the elections, in the districts where they attend school and live.
Sources note that Thorpe is currently offering legislation that would restrict students from using their college addresses to vote, even though they live at that address all year long. While, his district is home to students of the Northern Arizona University, he believes that this action would limit a major left-leaning voter block.
“These students do not influence the elections within their home communities, where their families and neighbors live, but instead they dilute the votes of the local full-time residents within the college communities,” Thorpe told Courthouse News.
The bill calls for an amendment to Arizona’s voter registration rules and require all voters to have a physical address within the state, and an “intent to remain,” at that address, thus limiting college students from voting in districts where they don’t “actually live.”
“A dormitory address or other temporary college or university address may not be used for determining residency … and is deemed to be evidence of a temporary address with intent to return to some other permanent address,” the bill states.
Thorpe had introduced a similar bill, earlier this year, however, it was shot down by Doug Colemen and was refused a hearing in the state’s House Government Committee.
“Just the basic premise of the bill of actually saying that they couldn’t choose where their residence was, even if it was where they were living, I had issues with,” Coleman told Arizona’s Capitol Media Services in January.
Moreover, it was only in January that Thorpe had introduced a bill that barred colleges and public schools from utilizing student activity fees for any political speech, political activity or other political purpose,” and had also introduced a legislation that prevented all schools from teaching courses that focused on “social justice toward a race, gender, religion, political affiliation, social class or other class of people.”
