This past week millions of Americans exercised their rights by going to the polls on Nov. 6 to vote in the midterm elections. Leading up to this election was an unprecedented media firestorm aimed at encouraging the youth of America to vote. In New Hampshire, this included an actual court case featuring Saint Anselm sophomore and Politics major Phillip Dragone.

Since 1980 Americans aged eighteen to twenty-nine have only voted at a rate of about fifty percent, according to the U.S. Census. Meanwhile, Americans sixty-five and older have consistently voted at about seventy percent. This disparity has recently gained mass attention due large in part to the March for Our Lives movement, created by the survivors of the Parkland school shooting. Their aim is to get every citizen eighteen or older to exercise their rights and take part in the democratic process.

While the goal of March for Our Lives and other voting organizations is to increase millennial turnout, for many out-of-state college students this is easier said than done. For most students at Saint Anselm College, they are registered to vote in the state where they grew up. Therefore, if a student is registered in Massachusetts, as many students are, then they will not be able to vote in elections unless they go home. This is not feasible for many students. It is even more difficult with Senate Bill 3, also known as SB3.

SB3 was passed by the current New Hampshire Senate, and it makes it for anyone who lives out of state must first provide a proof of domicile if they wish to vote in the state. According to Dragone, who is a plaintiff in the case seeking to strike down SB3, said that this bill will make it more difficult for college students like him to vote. Dragone is from Massachusetts and believes that New Hampshire’s registration process is much more complicated.

“It’s not a matter of possibility, it’s a matter of convenience,” Dragone said. “In Massachusetts when I register to vote I just needed to go online, and it took me about five minutes to register there. In New Hampshire, the process is already harder. You need a birth certificate, a license, or other various things, and that’s just for people who already live here. For someone like me, you need to provide all that documents providing proof of domicile, and that’s the current law as it stands.”

Dragone further explained that failure to have these documents would either mean that a person would not be allowed to vote, or if they did, they might be subjected to an investigation by a state official. All of this can easily dissuade a young college student from voting.

Dragone’s involvement in this court case goes back to last October when he was recommended by an anonymous person inside Saint Anselm’s Young College Democrats. He was contacted by a law firm from Washington D.C.

“This law firm was hired by the league of women voters and a few other organizations to combat this law and have it declared unconstitutional by the courts.”

Dragone was the only student from Saint Anselm listed as a plaintiff, but he was joined by students from the University of New Hampshire and Keene State. After first meeting with the lawyers for a deposition in July, Dragone was questioned on his voting history both here and in Massachusetts.

“The beginning of this semester I met with them again, and the trial was in September. I went into Manchester to the district court to give my testimony. I sat in the witness box and was questioned by the district attorneys as well as the prosecutors, who I was a plaintiff for.”

After testifying on his struggles with voting in New Hampshire the case was deliberated by the court. In mid-October Dragone was given the news that they had won the case. The Manchester courts had ruled SB3 unconstitutional, making it easier for out of state persons living long-term in New Hampshire to vote in national elections.

However, five days later Dragone was informed that the New Hampshire Supreme Court has overruled that decision, putting the law back in place. That being said, this is not the end of Dragone’s part in this case.

“What a lot of the articles aren’t saying is that the case will go back sometime after the midterms in 2019, and voters will no longer have to provide proof of domicile.”

Dragone is unsure whether or not he will be called in to give another testimony, but he did say that he is willing. In the meantime, he was able to go home to Massachusetts to vote in the midterms. That being said, Dragone also said that he would like to be able to vote near campus for the upcoming elections, the biggest being the 2020 presidential elections.

Overall, Dragone believes this journey has opened his eyes to new perspectives, “You always hear about people going to court to change the laws, but I got up close and personal and saw how much time and effort and passion goes into it.”

Saint Anselm is a politically active campus, and obstacles can prevent many students from participating in politics. As Dragone waits to see if SB3 is officially stricken down, he hopes that the future sees a greater youth voter turnout.