When you were a college student where did you register to vote?

[karynnj]

In Iowa, the Dodd and Clinton campaigns and a respected journalist on the Des Moines register are making an issue of Barack Obama encouraging out of state students to register and caucus in Iowa.

Since the 1970s, the right for students to do this has been fought and won in the courts many many times. It has usually been the Republicans who fought against the students' right to do this.

[MaineDem]

1. I continued my registration at home

I voted absentee.

You didn't have a category for that so I voted "Other".

[Captain Hilts]

8. Me too. nt

[BOSSHOG]

2. Do you not have to register

where you are a resident? IOW you might go to College in Iowa (non homeowner) but you live in Colorado, have a driver's license from Colorado, have a bonafide home address in Colorado. So you are a resident of Colorado.

[SteelPenguin]

3. I think it depends on whether you're claimed as a dependent or not

If your parents claim you as a dependent, it doesnt' matter if you have an apartment, you still theoretically have a home address with them. If you're not a dependent then it's where you hang your hat, even if that is a college town.

I voted where I went to college, and then when I was in graduate school, I voted in a different state. My parents had moved twice since I lived with them and it would have made even less sense for me to have voted where they lived given that I had only visted there once.

[Bicoastal]

4. Nothing wrong with this.

Anyone young person planning to vote for Obama probably knows how important Iowa is to him, and if they're living in the state for 4 years, they might as well register there temporarily.

However--and I really don't want to sound snide about this--are Iowa's universities and colleges really known for having a significant number of out-of-state students in the first place?

[bigscott]

7. the University of Iowa

has almost 40,000 students - not all are from Iowa

Not all are from the USA for that matter

Peace

[maddiejoan]

5. You register where you pay taxes

--or where your parent/guardian pays taxes.

[JohnLocke]

24. Not true.

You register where you have a domicile that you live in for the preponderance of your time.

[bigscott]

6. i registered at home and used an absentee ballot

to vote for Carter!

[mtnsnake]

9. If you wanted to vote out of state, didn't you have to make that state your legal residence first?

[Adelante]

12. No

College students have presumptive voting addresses where they go to school. This has been since the 1970s. They can't do both, vote from home and from school. The same struggle for this voting right students have gone through is being waged lately for armed services personnel who are stationed in various places. It's generally the GOP who tries to stop students from voting from their school addresses, which are legal residences, not Democrats, though.

[MaineDem]

10. It depends on state law, as well

I know in Maine it allows you to register where you live and that includes college dormitories. It's specific in the law. Other states may not allow it.

GOP in Maine is also trying to change the law. They are so afraid of people voting.

[Adelante]

16. There are variations in how states set up their systems

But it's federal law that says college students have the presumptive right to a voting address where they go to school. In the 1970s in Texas, the Republican AG tried to stop students from a predominately black college from voting in their college towns. There was an appeal on a local ruling against the students and it was overruled at the federal level establishing presumptive voting rights for students where they go to school. The GOP still fights this tooth and nail. They did on Florida 2000, Ohio 2004, in other states in 2006. They do it every election season and the DNC fights it back.

[Mabus]

11. I originally registered at my parent's house when I turned 18

I moved several months after my 18th birthday to my college town and re-registered here. Of course, I intended my move to be permanent when I re-registered as a Democrat here (and I've lived in this city/area for about 28 out of the last 30 years). I got involved with local politics back when I moved here and have been involved ever since. It was easy for me to get involved since I was born here and, ever since my parents had moved to another state, I had spent summers here, worked here during the summer and I have a lot of family here.

It is an issue that has been talked about a lot around here because we do live in a college town. I'm not sure if it has changed but it used to be one of the criteria that the university looked at for out-of-state students wanting in-state tuition was whether or not they were registered locally. They also required an in-state driver's license and other indicia that a student intended to make Kansas their permanent state of residence.

fwiw, about fifteen years ago we (an environmental group I was working with) tried to register kids locally. Most of them didn't want to give up their right to vote in local issues back home and didn't register locally. They did help us out with phone calls and canvassing but they didn't vote when the issue we were working on was on the ballot. Not surprisingly, most of these kids moved back to the places they came from after graduation.

[GreenPartyVoter]

13. Registered at home to vote for Dad. Changed registration later once I moved to college town

[trof]

14. Vote?

I didn't register to vote until my early 30s.
Just in time to vote for McGovern against Nixon.

[beachmom]

15. I registered in my home town, just because, well, I was already registered

and it was easier to do absentee ballot. I answered option #2, but it wasn't because there was a close race. Just habit, really, to vote at home, and do so by absentee.

Still, it was clear you could register at school if you wanted to. BUT, obviously, you could never vote TWICE, so one had to choose.

[Alexander]

17. I registered at my mom's Scottsdale address.

Since I move around a lot within Tempe, being a college student, it's the only permanent address I have.

I'm from Connecticut but my parents don't live there any more. So all my mail goes to Scottsdale before I read it.

By the way, this had no effect on the important races. Her house is in the same congressional district as Tempe, so I was still voting for all the same people.

[rzemanfl]

18. When I was in college I wasn't old enough to vote. I think it was

'72 or '73 before 18 year-olds got the right to vote. When I was in college the important thing was where your draft board was.

[MonkeyFunk]

19. I was a named plaintiff

in a class-action lawsuit against the county in which I went to college to force them to allow students to vote. We won.

[Adelante]

29. That's so fabulous of you

What year and state? Just curious.

[MonkeyFunk]

32. Upstate New York

in the very early 80s

[Adelante]

36. I am proud of you

:hug:

[MonkeyFunk]

37. I can't take much credit

the lawyer for the Student Association really did it. I just lent my name to it and signed an affadavit.

[sniffa]

20. my first year, i remained enrolled at my parents house

and voted absentee.

after that i voted from my college town.

[TeamJordan23]

21. If you live in Iowa 9 months out of the year; you are allowed to caucus. nm

[ElizabethDC]

22. I'm currently a college student, and I'm registered in my home town

I feel that I know my hometown candidates and issues better than I know the ones in my school area.

[karynnj]

40. Not to mention - given that it is DC - per your name

Having an alternative state is good!

[ElizabethDC]

41. Yep, I think that's a big reason

I have no interest in voting in DC - once I move here permantently (which I suspect I will after I graduate), I'm going to try to live on the Virginia side so that I can vote there.

However, pretty much all the college students I know are registered to vote in their home towns, regardless of where they go to school. Personally, I just feel more involved at home because I know many of the candidates personally, as I've worked on a lot of campaigns in my home state.

[tammywammy]

23. I was registered in the town where I went to school

As were many of my friends.

[ellacott]

25. I registered and voted at my college

Since I was living under that jurisdiction I wanted to have my voice heard on issues that affected the area.

[Debi]

26. This poll is bogus...

I was never a college student x(

:hi: I'm just picking on you.

[sniffa]

27. interesting, "it's usually the Republicans fighting it"

missed that the first go round.

:rofl:

[Blue_In_AK]

28. I couldn't vote when I was a college student

Voting age was 21 then.

[MethuenProgressive]

30. Bogus Push Poll - I voted at home because home is where I cared what happened.

Obama's attempted recruitment and promises of free transport from Illinois to Iowa of "If You Are Not From Iowa" students to caucus in Iowa is a third place tactic.
The Illinois Caucus. Bah.

[karynnj]

38. This is NOT a push poll - even if it is badly designed

In fact it CAN'T be a push poll - that tries to manipulate you to vote a certain way - this is asking what you did.

It has problems because there were circumstances that I did not think of. I put it up because I knew that over 35 years ago it was very normal for college kids to vote at school. I had NO affinity for my little town in northern Indiana, where I spent between 2 or 3 months working in the summer - real life was college. I was not alone - a large % of my hs left never to return. (My parents moved to a neighboring town - so I did not even have an address in a town that I ever really lived in.

You have an affinity to your home town and cared about their elections. (I envy you having a town you grew up in and still cared for.)

It appears that the federal law accommodates both cases. What I don't like is that this takes on an element of student bashing. We need to encourage their participation - not make them feel unwanted and unvalued. This fight has happened repeatedly and to my knowledge it has never been resolved in favor of not letting students register at the college.

Incidentally, I do not have a 2008 candidate.

[sandnsea]

31. Stunning Shocking Unbelievable Answers!!!

All of Hillary's supporters register/ed in their home towns! Whoda thunk it.

[MonkeyFunk]

33. No, not all

you clearly didn't read the thread.

[rinsd]

34. Yes, students certainly have the right to. But when campaigns become involved, things change.

Its similar to the carpetbagger charge.

I registered in my hometown because I did not go far away for college and it was easy for me to either vote on election day or do an absentee ballot.

[DangerDave921]

35. I didn't

Too busy getting drunk, listening to Neil Young, and trying to get girls.

College, for me, was a 4-year summer camp where politics was an unwelcome bore.

[Madam Mossfern]

39. When I was a college student, I was too young to vote

You had to be 21.
I graduated when I had just turned 20 in January 1969.

[madrchsod]

42. so clinton and dodd did`t understand the law in iowa?

i`m at a loss why they are complaining about something that is legal in iowa. if i were a full time student and lived in iowa more than i lived in my state then why should`t i vote in iowa? i`m not breaking any law am i?

[eyesroll]

44. If the caucus was 2 weeks later, this wouldn't be an issue.

They're making hay because many college students return to their parents' homes over winter break and Obama is encouraging students to return to Iowa before the end of the break to vote in the caucus.

If school was back in session or close to it (as has been the case in years past), the students would already be there and would caucus there and nobody would have a problem with it.

I don't think Clinton and Dodd don't understand the law (it's straightforward and both are lawyers) -- I think they're just mucking with it.

[eyesroll]

43. Wisconsin allows otherwise eligible college students to vote at their college address if they want.

It doesn't matter where they're "domiciled" or whether they're in dorms or in apartments or whether their parents list them on their income taxes or what. It doesn't matter if they're 19 or 52. College students can vote at school, or at their "home" address, per their choice.

10 days at the address as of the election. Their dorm or college apartment address, not the address of the college itself, determines the polling place. Same day registration. Many colleges provide a list of dorm residents right to the polling place.

I voted at my college address. It was much easier than voting absentee at "home," when I wasn't planning to move back "home" after graduation anyway.