MSU Mankato College Republicans Receive Tim Pawlenty Chapter of the Year Award

Politics is full of irony, which is like saying, “Yes, bears do perform natural behaviors in the woods.” One of those recent ironies occurred when the Minnesota State University, Mankato College Republicans received the annual Tim Pawlenty Chapter of the Year Award for their efforts to get students to the polls in the 2006 elections.

Why is this ironic?

You see, the Minnesota GOP has long carped about college students being able to vote where they go to school, rather than where they (or their parents) actually live. Minnesota election law is among the most progressive in the country in encouraging its citizens to vote, which is one reason why the state has led the nation in voter turnout year after year. One of the reasons for this is same-day voter registration, which gives students, historically a population with lower voter turnout, a chance to vote when otherwise they might not.

more insideRepublicans have argued against letting students vote where they attend school, rather than in their home towns, because they say such liberalized legalities lead to voter fraud.

So the irony is this: The MSU Mankato College Republicans have proved that same-day registration can work in the GOP’s favor, as evident in the 2006 results from Mankato’s Precinct 16, also known as the university’s largest dormitory, Gage Hall. According to the Mankato Free Press, “While it’s true that, overall, Republicans fared poorly, that wasn’t the case in the MSU’s Gage residence hall. College Republicans worked hard to register voters there, and on election day, Gage Hall