They’re not even trying to hide their plans to interfere with the election at this point. The latest scheme cooked up by the BIden administration was announced by Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday, though it didn’t generate many headlines initially. During a meeting with voting rights advocates, Harris said that the administration has been working to supposedly “promote voter participation” among students. As part of that effort, they are now allowing college students to be paid through the Federal Work-Study Program to register voters and serve as “non-partisan poll workers.” The actual intent of this initiative should be obvious and the plan runs counter to the operation and intent of the FWSP. (Newsweek)
The federal government is paying college students to register voters before the 2024 election, Vice President Kamala Harris said this week.
Students will be paid through the Federal Work-Study Program, Harris said, during a meeting with voting rights leaders on Tuesday.
“We have been doing work to promote voter participation for students,” she said. “For example, we have under the Federal Work-Study Program, now allow students to get paid, through Federal Work-Study, to register people and to be nonpartisan poll workers.”
There are several reasons why the White House would be targeting college students in this fashion. With the cost of a college education skyrocketing, dangling some money in front of students will prove to be very tempting. And the overwhelming majority of college students tend to be liberals who are more likely to register as Democrats. (Until they get out in the world and cold, hard, reality sets in.) So you know that they are primarily going to be registering Democrats. They won’t be out there pounding the pavement in blue-collar, working-class neighborhoods.
As far as being paid to serve as poll workers goes, similar issues arise. Which voters’ ballots do you suppose will be more heavily scrutinized? It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to connect the dots here. Further, those poll worker positions are supposed to be manned by volunteers. That’s why many of the ones you meet on election day are older, retired individuals. It’s not supposed to be a paying job.
That brings us to the other problem with this scheme. The Federal Work-Study Program is supposed to be coordinated with actual employers. An FAQ provided by the Department of Education lays out the way the system was designed to operate. The qualifying “jobs” are primarily supposed to be performed on campus. Off-campus work is typically done for community service programs. The primary goal of the FWSP, in addition to earning extra money to pay for college expenses, is to help students “gain valuable work experience.” What work experience will they gain by handing out and harvesting voter registration forms or signing people in at polling places? Employers will not be impressed by seeing those “skills” on a resume.
It’s also worth asking under what authority Biden and Harris are doing this. The FWSP was established by Congress as part of the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964. (It was later incorporated under The Higher Education Act of 1965.) Congress has passed no amendments to the program in recent years. How is the executive branch unilaterally introducing modifications to the program without congressional approval?
This is a transparent effort to fluff up the Democrats’ voter registration numbers. It’s also a way to restore some of the administration’s sagging approval numbers with younger voters, just as the student loan repayment schemes are. This needs to be challenged immediately, but it’s unclear who would have standing to do so. Of course, little details like this have never stopped the Biden administration from simply announcing changes unilaterally.
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