This article has been corrected from its initial form. Radford City, not Montgomery County, was the subject of some controversy in 2005 regarding voter registrations. Neither Radford City nor Montgomery County rejected large numbers of voters in that year. Letters sent from the Radford City registrar to students in 2005 seeking clarification of their registration information when information was missing from their voter registrations.

This information has been removed because it does not add substantive clarification to an already murky issue.

The Collegiate Times regrets these errors.

Owing to Virginia's crucial status on the national electoral map, several politically-minded groups have come to Blacksburg hoping to register voters. However, simply registering to vote could have dire consequences for some college students.

In the past few days, Randy Wertz, the general registrar at the Montgomery County Voter Registration Office, said he has received phone calls from many distraught parents and worried students fretting over what legal implications are caused by registering to vote in Blacksburg.

Mark Everett, a senior in computer science, recently registered to vote in Blacksburg; his parents reside in Haynesville, Va. When approached by a voter registration campaigner, no mention was made of any implications in re-registering to vote with his Blacksburg address.

However, when a person's registration is switched to Montgomery County, it is required that they change their driver's license and car registration to their address in Blacksburg within 30 days.

"When a voter registers to vote in a county other than his hometown, you're supposed to change everything. Your car should be registered and your driver's license should be renewed," said Bruce Phillips, attorney at law of Student Legal Services,.

Everett was unaware of this law and expressed his dismay.

"I wish I had known that," Everett said.  "I probably wouldn't have registered to vote in Blacksburg and would have sent in an absentee ballot."

Many students consider where their parents live to be their official address. But some consider Blacksburg, where they spend a majority of their year at school, to be their place of residency. Wertz said the misunderstanding of the law lies within where differing students consider themselves home.

"Domicile is the key," Wertz said. "By registering here, (students) consider this their domicile. They need to check with people once they claim this is their permanent residence. They need to check with tax attorneys or insurance people" to see whether they might be affected.

However, the concept of change of residence through voter registration in a town other than your own isn't completely accurate. Phillips provided a more precise understanding of the repercussions of registering to vote in Blacksburg.

"They turned it around," he said. "It's not that registering makes this your permanent address. It's that you shouldn't be registering unless this is your permanent address."

Virginia Code 24.2-101 states, "'Residence' or 'resident,' for all purposes of qualification to register and vote, means domicile and a place of abode. In determining domicile, consideration may be given to ... financial independence, business pursuits, employment, income sources, residence for income tax purposes, marital status, residence of parents, spouse and children ... other factors reasonably necessary to determine the qualification of a person to register or vote."

Back in 2005, several organizations had tried to have people registered to vote in Blacksburg. Groups such as Virginia 21 Coalition and the New Voters Project managed to rake in several thousand voters, mostly students from Tech and Radford University. The same types of questions emerged in terms of voter registration issues.

"The problem is the registrar's office over at Christiansburg," Phillips said. "They may reject that person's voter registration here because they may say you're not actually a resident here. If your driver's license is from somewhere else, you're not a Blacksburg resident ... It's supposed to be your permanent address. Registering to vote doesn't make it your permanent address. But if it's not your permanent address you shouldn't be registering."

If students change their voter registration, they might have to claim independent on their tax returns since they would be claiming residence not with their parents but in their off-campus residence in Montgomery County.

Voting campaign positions are advertised on Craigslist and on posters throughout town. Most of the 20-to-30 minute training sessions they receive tell them how to fill out the actual registration form. When a person asks about anything pertaining to income tax or residence they are referred to the organization's legal consultant.

Wertz welcomes students to register at Montgomery County but to be aware of the issues and to make certain that they have all the information in front of them. He has met with many of the campaigns and is making certain that they are aware of this problem.

 "Before they make a quick decision, make an informed decision," Wertz said.

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