Stone Not Interested in the Student Vote

The Badger Herald highlighted Rep. Jeff Stone's self-serving Voter ID bill yesterday and they stressed the ways that it could hinder and otherwise suppress the youth vote in Wisconsin. They also report that Stone is against even allowing them to use official student ID's for voting. Suppressing the youth vote would be a tragedy in any case but especially in Wisconsin where we have repeatedly had some of the highest student turnout rates. Jeff Stone is not only trying to make it more difficult for college students to vote but he has also supported other measures that would have negatively impacted college students in Milwaukee County.

Consider some of the following Stone budget votes for example that were not exactly supportive of our college students or of the institutions where they learn:

• Voted against a version of the 2007 budget that included millions in funds for UWM's planned research park, starting a UWM School of Public Health, and for increased research at the Medical College of Wisconsin.
• Stone did support the (Republican) version of the 2007 budget. But that version cut in so many different areas that UW-Milwaukee would have not been able to properly support new faculty with teaching assistants and staff. [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 7/13/07]
• In the same 2007 Assembly version of the budget, Milwaukee Area Technical College would have been hit particularly hard losing some $3.9 million in 2007 alone. [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 10/27/07]
• Stone even voted for a 2003 budget that would have reduced reimbursement of education-related fees for veterans.

Based on Stone's attempt to make voting more difficult for students and based on some of his other votes, I have to wonder if he has simply written off the student vote completely? We already know that Jeff Stone is looking for votes in Milwaukee County but apparently he is just not particularily interested in the student vote.