2024/05/20 by Timothy Reese Cain · 1 voice
Psychology · Social Sciences · #Constitution #Electoral Systems and Political Participation #Enthusiasm #Latin American and Latino Studies #Law #Political science #Politics #Psychology #Public administration #Public relations #Race, History, and American Society #Ratification #Social psychology #Suffrage #Voting
paper · pdf · doi:10.1017/heq.2024.13
openalex publication_date 2024/05/20 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/22
Abstract The 1971 passage of the Twenty-Sixth Amendment to the US Constitution was a significant step in advancing voting rights that offered a new route for young people to participate in public life. While met with enthusiasm in many quarters, the question of where a substantial segment of the youth vote—college students—would cast their ballots was a concern even before the amendment’s ratification. After ratification, it became a serious point of conflict, with opponents to college-town voting arguing that students should be forced to vote where their parents lived. In numerous towns these arguments turned to efforts to deny or complicate registration and voting, intimidate students, or gerrymander to reduce students’ influence. At times, these efforts were explicitly aimed at Black students. This article examines these efforts to prevent students from voting in their college towns in the 1970s, demonstrating that they could serve the strategy of disenfranchising the newly franchised.