Trump’s voter crackdown reaches college campuses

The administration's moves to tighten voting rules could dampen student participation in a midterm election where control of Congress may be decided by small margins.

Colleges play a critical role in helping students vote in what is often their first chance to cast a ballot. | Nam Y. Huh/AP

College campuses are already getting a taste of President Donald Trump’s effort to impose broad, new voting restrictions across the country.

While Trump’s push for a partisan elections bill faces several bottlenecks on Capitol Hill, his administration has spent months quietly chipping away at programs designed to boost turnout among a voting bloc Republicans say lean Democratic.

Colleges play a critical role in helping students vote in what is often their first chance to cast a ballot. But the Trump administration is barring colleges from using a federal program that employs low-income students to register voters and threatening to investigate schools if they use data from a nonpartisan student voting study to help boost turnout.

© Politico