The event brought together several campus political groups, according to College Democrats communications director George Helding '14. The College Democrats, College Republicans, College Libertarians and Student Assembly, in addition to various other student and Greek organizations, cosponsored the event.
"We had been trying to reach out to as many people as possible and it's been great working with the Republicans and Libertarians," Helding said. "This is the first time that I know of in at least four years that all the [political] groups on campus have worked together in anything and it's really reassuring."
The collective effort of the political groups and other co-sponsors demonstrates the issue's importance to students at the College, College Democrats President Sayak Mukherjee '12 said.
"The fact that the College Democrats, Republicans and Libertarians are united just goes to show that there is a lot of solidarity about this issue across campus," Mukherjee said. "I e-mailed out to Greek organizations on Wednesday and within two to three hours we had eight new co-sponsors for the event."
The bill, proposed by State Rep. Gregory Sorg, R-Grafton, changes the definition of domicile, requiring that an individual's residence for voting eligibility "be the most recent place where he or she as an adult or where his or her parents or legal guardians with whom he or she resided as a minor established physical presence," according to the bill.
The College Democrats recently created and circulated a petition against the bill throughout various New Hampshire college campuses on Feb. 14. The petition had approximately 500 signatories as of Friday.
Dartmouth political groups have also arranged for students to both attend and testify at the Feb. 24 hearing, according to Helding.
"I'm not affiliated with a particular political group on campus but I care about my right to vote and I'm concerned about local issues," Will Hix '12, who will testify at the hearing, said. "It's unfair to single out a certain group of voters and even if I physically won't be staying in New Hampshire after graduation, there's a pretty permanent standing of college students here."
College Democrats Vice President Chelsea Stewart '12, who will also testify, said she was excited to dispel myths concerning apathetic and uninformed student voters.
"There are a lot of misconceptions about college student voter behavior and I think it is really important to disprove them," Stewart said.
Both politicians and students spoke at Thursday's event, applauding student efforts and openly voicing their own criticisms of Bill 176.
The debate over voting rights is not a partisan issue, but one that affects all Americans, Kuster said in an interview with The Dartmouth.
"The reason why I wanted to come up today was to encourage students to stand up for their right to vote," she said. "New Hampshire has a tradition of openness and we should continue to promote such civic engagement."
In her speech, Kuster stressed college students' potential to exercise real political power.
"Your peers are changing how government works and are changing the world," she said. "We ought to recognize in New Hampshire how important voting truly is."
Karger also discussed the importance of college voters and his intent to work with state legislators to defeat the bill.
"Today, the younger generation is much more involved and knowledgeable," Karger said at the event. "[With Bill 176], New Hampshire lawmakers are saying that they don't like how college students are voting and that's just frivolous we can't allow that."
The bill is inherently unconstitutional and prohibits an environment that educates young people to be active in their political communities, according to Houde.
"The purpose of institutions of higher learning is to educate and create leaders, whether in the fields of math, science or even politics," Houde said. "It seems bizarre that New Hampshire supports and wants [college students] to learn those skills, but won't let you exercise them."
Stewart said legislators promoting the bill stereotype student voters unfairly.
"I have heard quotes that say, College students vote with emotions,' and that we lack life experience' or vote liberally without base,'" Stewart said. "This is fundamentally unjust."
Many students who attended the event said in interviews with The Dartmouth that they gained new perspectives on their voting rights and learned of the possible effects of the legislation.
Svati Narula '13 said the rally made her more passionate about voting rights, and Tyler Ford '11 said that the bipartisan perspectives presented at the event solidified his views regarding Bill 176.
"Before I had never thought about the philosophical reasons [Houde discussed] of why this bill is wrong," Ford said. "It was great how there were perspectives from all over the political spectrum here and that we could bring policy actors who are diverse yet really care about our voting rights."
College Republicans President Richard Sunderland '11 said in an interview with The Dartmouth that he considered the rally a valuable opportunity to spread awareness about the bill.
"There has been a lot of local and national buzz about this legislation but that doesn't mean that we have reached every student on campus about it," Sunderland said. "Our biggest issue is definitely getting the word out there."
