U. S. citizens who happen to be students will vote routinely next
Tuesday. Why should NRP organizations be able to set aside that basic
right in their design of the neighborhood franchise?
Beween regular elections, I can register to vote without any further
proof than my assertion of domicile, age, and U. S. citizenship. On
election day, I can register to vote with appropriate evidence of
current domicile, etc., and having proof of being a currently registered
student is one of the acceptable components in this process.
If I live in a college dormitory, how do I differ from the student
renter down the street from me that lives in a college fraternity house?
How do I differ from the renter in the next block, student or not? If I
buy a condo unit or enter into a contract for deed while I'm working as
a post-doc, does that make me a sort of super-citizen/student?
Remember the original American constitutional dialogue about property
ownership as a precondition for the franchise? Property ownership in the
NRP setting seeks a new way to find electoral advantage, does it not?
We have resident councils in our public housing highrises and every
adult resident has the right to vote - no possibility of ownership here
but rather an implied expectation of permanent domicile and plenty of
students of various sorts sprinkled through our population. Should I
lose the right to vote if I register for an extension class or a
two-week short course someplace?
Or is it not the case in NRP that students become an excluded class -
objectified and rejected en masse - by non-student factions for reasons
related to the preservation of some sort of advantage?
Take this to the question of U. S. citizenship. As a non-U.S. citizen,
should my inclusion in my neighborhood franchise be defined by my green
card? my student visa? my one-year fellowship? my visiting lectureship?
What awkward niceties have to be found when departing from
domicile-based one person/one vote!
Fred Markus, Horn Terrace, Ward Ten
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