{"id":14402,"date":"2022-11-08T17:36:54","date_gmt":"2022-11-08T22:36:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thewash.org\/?p=14402"},"modified":"2022-11-08T17:47:07","modified_gmt":"2022-11-08T22:47:07","slug":"does-dc-law-give-university-students-time-off-to-vote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thewash.org\/2022\/11\/08\/does-dc-law-give-university-students-time-off-to-vote\/","title":{"rendered":"Does a DC law give university students time off to vote?"},"content":{"rendered":"
A law guaranteeing students in the District of Columbia the right to an excused absence to vote has left university students in limbo as District officials are unable to clarify who counts.<\/span><\/p>\n “We should be able to get that chance [to vote] because we have a lot of work to do ourselves,” said Damia Bates, a business administration graduate student at Trinity Washington University, on Election Day.<\/span><\/p>\n The D.C. Council passed the <\/span>Leave to Vote Amendment Act<\/span><\/a> in 2020 before the year’s presidential election. While the legislation mandates employees have the right to paid time off to vote, it also grants students an excused absence to vote.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n According to the law, educational institutions must provide students with at least two hours to vote in person in any District of Columbia election. Students ineligible to vote in the District also have the right to a voting absence in any election run by the jurisdiction where they are eligible to vote.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Whether the act applies to university students is unclear, however.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n “I think that’s the big question: what did D.C. Council mean by this?” said William Brummett, program manager for co-curricular service at George Washington University.<\/span><\/p>\n In the legislation, educational institutions are defined as any school in the District of Columbia Public Schools system, a public charter school, an independent school, a private school, a parochial school or a private instructor.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The amendment does not clarify if colleges and universities fall under this definition, including if a private university is considered a private school.<\/span><\/p>\n “The law is sort of vague on what they define a school as,” said Brummett, who works with campus voter group GW Votes.<\/span><\/p>\n Spokespeople for the D.C. Board of Elections and the D.C. Council said they did not know if the law applies to university students. The D.C. Council Judiciary and Public Safety Committee, which reviewed the bill in 2020 and expanded it to include students, did not respond to requests for comment.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n