I am a student at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington and my parents should not be taxed for my vote.

Can one fathom the hypocrisy of purported small government Tea Partiers who subject taxes and red tape on families struggling to send their children to college?

If passed, the aptly named Senate Bill 666, a.k.a. Bill of the Beast and its counterpart, Bill 667, will disqualify students as dependents on their parents’ taxes if the students vote (as most do) at their university – a $2,500 tax credit is apparently the price for young North Carolinians to participate in democracy.

My parents live in Apex, NC; I live, shop, pay taxes, and receive mail in Wilmington. The state’s current election laws respect that college students and service members operate in a state of limbo.

So, if current election laws work, why do Republicans (Senators Cook, Sanderson, and Rabin) suddenly want to penalize my parents because I vote?

The cant rhetoric of so-called small government proponents is a cover for Republicans to invade students’ voting booths – or a possible soon-to-be lack thereof.

We know why: 67 percent of students voted for President Barack Obama in 2012 nationally and the youth vote is 13 percent of the North Carolina Electorate.

Listen up McCrory and other Republicans: You can’t change the laws to create the electorate you want. That isn’t democracy. That isn’t American.

Time will tell if students want to sit back and pay to vote.

I say, “hell no!”