How comparatively easy would it be for students to vote?

“We should not live in a state where it is easier for a young adult to purchase cigarettes and alcohol than it is to vote.”

— University of Minnesota student Sydney Jordan, who doesn’t have an ID with her current address and said in a hearing that requiring a photo ID will keep a lot of college students from voting.

But Dan McGrath, executive director of the election watchdog group Minnesota Majority, told lawmakers:

“It’s astonishing to me. I mean it’s almost like the testifiers think there are armies of ninjas that they have to hand-to-hand combat their way through to the DPS station to get their free identification card. Some of the arguments I found ridiculous.”

Read MPR’s coverage of the voter-ID hearing here.

About the blogger

Alex Friedrich

afriedrich@mpr.org

Alex Friedrich reports on higher education issues for MPR News. Among the stories he has covered: the fall of the Berlin Wall, aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, collapse of the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis, 2003 Moscow suicide bombing and 2004 presidential elections in the Republic of Georgia. He holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Georgia and a master’s in European political economy from the London School of Economics.