By Travis Walters
Congress adopted the twenty-sixth amendment in 1971, which lowered the voting age to 18 from 21. The youth vote has since become widely sought after in Presidential elections. Partisan organizations conduct voter registration drives on campuses nationwide. In the process, they often discourage or spread misleading information on how or if students are allowed to register.
Earlier this year Virginia released two statements telling students not to register in Virginia because they could no longer be claimed as a dependent of their parents, they could lose their scholarships and could lose coverage under their parents health care plans. After inquiry from students, parents, and civil rights lawyers, they clarified their position.
Each state is required to register students, as per the Supreme Court decision of 1979, which allows students to choose which state they wish to vote in. They may either vote in the state they go to school in, or register and vote in their home state. Registration differs in each state, and is often confusing. The State of Georgia requires that voters register 30 days before a general election, and on Election Day they must show a photo ID at the polls; a student ID is valid. To establish residency in Georgia students need only consider the school address as their principal home and have no plans to leave. However, registering to vote could disallow you to vote in your home state if you’re already registered.
Recently, a number of organizations have begun to create Web sites to show student voters the registration rules associated with their home state, or the state their school is located in. The Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law established such a Web site. It displays a map of the United States and allows students to choose whether or not they would like to vote from home or from their school. It then displays the appropriate
registration guidelines.
Other sites have gone further. CountMore.org, a non-partisan Web site established last month allows students to choose the state their school is located in and their home state. It then uses an algorithm to sift through data from current polls and the 2004 election to determine where their vote would most likely count more. As it stands now, according to their Web site, the swing states that matter most are Ohio and Colorado. Followed by Virginia, Pennsylvania, Florida, Nevada, and Michigan. Therefore, if you select Georgia as your school state, and Colorado as your home state the site tells you the margin of victory in the 2004 election was 16.71 percent in Georgia, versus 4.73 percent in Colorado.
CountMore.org then provides a link to register to vote in Colorado. Their Web site also has a note saying, “The small number of students with scholarships or tuition that require residency should check with their financial aid office before registering to vote in their home state.” Not all scholarships require residency, and in fact this is where controversy most often starts.
The Brennan Center has detailed information on how registering to vote may affect residency status of the minority of students whose tuition or scholarships stipulate where they can be a resident.
