By Makenna Hall, Asst. News Editor
With the midterms quickly approaching, a Let’s Talk was held to discuss voting rights in the Center for Diversity and Inclusion on Oct. 18.
The majority of the talk focused on how voting regulations have a disproportionate amount of negative effects on people of color and lower class individuals.
One example mentioned was the Supreme Court’s decision to prohibit North Dakota residents from voting without a street address. The decision was made a month before election day, which poses a problem for many Native Americans that do not use a physical street address.
Another issue the group talked about was the 53,000 Georgia residents whose voting registration status was put on hold. Georgia’s ‘exact match’ policy requires that citizen’s voting registration paperwork exactly match their Social Security information: any type of error could result in voting ineligibility.
The Associated Press reported that of these 53,000 residents, 70 percent are black.
The group noted that voting laws are always regulated under the facade of voting fraud, but, as one person in attendance mentioned, there are massive racist implications.
“We live in a society where there is an illusion where we’re much more democratic than we actually are,” said senior Kerry Lewis.
Some individuals mentioned that voting polls simply requiring an ID is unfair, in that obtaining one is a privilege that not everyone can afford to have.
“[People are] hopping through all these loopholes just to get democratic freedom,” senior Mimi Diallo said.
Another individual mentioned that there is a noticeable difference in countries’ dedication to democracy by how they treat election day.
Pam Frontino, associate director for leadership and engagement, was in charge of leading the talk, and made sure that students were aware of their voting rights and the available options for voting out of state.
While many Susquehanna students make the effort to become registered to vote, many do not actually make it to the polling booths.
According to the National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement, while 44.6 percent of Susquehanna students voted in the 2016 presidential election, only 8.6 percent voted in the 2014 midterm election.
Frontino said that there will be transportation available for students needing assistance getting to their polling locations for the midterm election which takes place on Nov. 6. Absentee ballots need to be mailed in the week before.