On Tuesday, Vice President Kamala Harris openly declared that the federal government plans on paying college students to register new voters, a move that could very well be illegal.
As Breitbart reports, Harris made her remarks at a White House event, saying that “we have been doing work to promote voter participation for students. For example, we have, under the Federal Work-Study program, now allowed students to get paid through Federal Work-Study to register people and to be non-partisan poll workers.”
“As we know, this is important for a number of reasons,” she continued. “To engage our young leaders in this process and activate them in terms of their ability to strengthen our communities.”
Critics point out that such a policy would constitute a use of taxpayer dollars for political purposes, targeting voters who are likely to already be Democratic such as college students. The proposal could also be in violation of the Hatch Act, which forbids federal government employees from engaging in political activities.
“Biden signed EO14019 ordering federal govt to use taxpayer $ to mobilize (his) voters,” said Senator Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.) in a post on X. “@StephenM has FOIAed details, and I’ve sought them in Congress, but Biden is hiding them. Sounds like the election-year plan is underway.”
The move by the Biden Administration comes as Biden’s re-election campaign faces a significant reduction in support among younger voters, who were crucial to his performance in 2020 as well as the Democrats’ over-performance in the 2022 midterms. Young voters have soured on Biden due to the belief that he is not progressive or far-left enough, on issues such as the student loan debt crisis, so-called “global warming,” and the war in Israel.
A recent poll by Axios shows that younger voters, between the ages of 18 and 34, are now more evenly-divided in the 2024 rematch between Biden and former President Donald Trump, with 52% saying they will vote for Biden while 48% plan on supporting President Trump.