Students fighting for the right to vote

Across the U.S., students demand right to register to vote in college towns

By MARTHA IRVINE

Date published: 9/13/2004

AP NATIONAL WRITER

CHICAGO--Young Han tried to register to vote in the New York town where he attends college but got a letter telling him to cast an absentee ballot where his parents live, more than 2,000 miles away.

In Virginia, Luther Lowe and Serene Alami were told much the same--their campus addresses at the College of William & Mary were deemed "temporary."

With so much emphasis on getting young people to the polls this election, the issue of where college students can register to vote is gaining attention. And some students--who believe they should have the right to vote where they live most of the year--are getting organized.

"We plan to push this issue," says Han, a 21-year-old junior at Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y., who's originally from a Seattle suburb. "Students are being disenfranchised."

Han spent the summer interning in Washington, where he met Lowe and other students who share his cause. They formed the grass-roots Student Voting Rights Campaign.

Now the group is calling for a "day of action" on Sept. 23, urging students to register en masse--even if they meet with resistance.

Students in some states will find they have no problem, say researchers at the Institute for Public Affairs and Civic Engagement at Salisbury University in Maryland. They've found that, in recent years, more states have loosened voting restrictions on college students.

But there are always exceptions, especially in smaller towns.

"Local politicians are very unsure about students," says Michael O'Loughlin, a political science professor at Salisbury. "They enjoy having students pay [sales] taxes and contribute to the economy. But they are wary of how students could influence politics at a local level."

Ultimately, O'Loughlin and fellow researchers have found that students who attend college in states that force or "encourage" them to vote absentee are less likely to vote.

David Andrews, general voter registrar in Williamsburg, says that's why he goes out of his way to help William & Mary students navigate the absentee process. He says he assisted about 2,000 absentee voters in the 2002 election.

But Virginia laws--"rules that apply to everyone," he says--make it unlikely that he'll let students register in his town.

At issue, he says, is the fact that dorms are considered temporary addresses, "like a hotel room or a time share."

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Date published: 9/13/2004