Letter: No cause for legal concern from voter registration
Monday, September 1, 2008; 11:12 PM
Last year, we started to become interested and active in U.S. politics. Because we have lived in Blacksburg for three and four years and consider this town home, we registered to vote at our local addresses.

On Feb. 12 of this year we went to our respective polling places, both within walking distance of campus, and successfully cast our ballots in the presidential primary. The process was quick and easy.

We voted in Blacksburg at our local addresses, which are on our voter registration cards.  Our driver's licenses still list our Hampton Roads addresses, and in April we filed taxes at our parents' addresses. Our dependency status still stands, and we are still under our parents' health insurance plans. As students, we understood that we have the right to vote in the place where we go to school and reside for more than nine months out of the year, without having to change any of these official documents.

First-time voters are even required to produce an ID, which we did and were not given any problems about not having local addresses on them. We voted without any repercussion in February, and look forward to doing so again in November.

It is important for students to understand that if they have the ability to go to a polling place on election day, they should.

It is vital that our generation participates in the political process and that our voices are not absent on Nov. 4.

You might be interested in... Related Topics: voting, letter to the editor
Posted by: Kyle Minor at Sep 2 It ought to be tied to tax policy then - and students ought to be charged the same property tax (either by the school or by the community) that the rest of the Blacksburg citizenry is charged. I've paid sales tax in numerous states, plus a couple of other countries - it doesn't qualify me to claim voting privileges anywhere else, though. In my opinion, your place of voting needs to be dictated by where your tax dollars go. If you're supporting Blacksburg with your income tax, your property tax, your real estate tax, et al, then by all means vote in their elections. Otherwise, you're telling other people what to do with their money when you don't even have a dog in the fight (so to speak). Absentee balloting isn't particularly challenging - so why are so many people against it? My guess is that Obama's political handlers are counting on a youth vote which is notoriously unreliable . . . . but to be fair, in my opinion, for some people NOT voting is a civic duty. Flag Abuse
Posted by: Anonymous at Sep 2 It has nothing to do with being lazy (personally I think filling out an absentee ballot is the lazier option, but that's beside the point). Read the letter. Students live here for 9+ months out of the year, go to school here, work here, pay at least sales tax here...why shouldn't we be allowed to participate in local government? There are pros and cons to both sides of the argument and really the only way I see to solve it is to not confine students to either category, but allow them to choose where they define their home and thus where they want to vote. Flag Abuse
Posted by: Kyle Minor at Sep 2 But in making the shift, you effectively disenfranchise the local voters. I mean, look at it this way - Montgomery county is a pretty heavily Red district in Virginia. Enter a bunch of college students who tend to vote D, and all of a sudden you've shifted the balance of power in the region. Before all the Democrats stand up and say "what's wrong with that?" we need to keep in mind that the people who ACTUALLY live in Montgomery county are entitled to choose their representatives for themselves - they have to live with the repercussions long after the college students leave. How many prospective new Montgomery County voters do you think have actually followed any of the local races down there? It's one thing to argue convenience, sure, but it's another thing completely to lead to a de facto disenfranchisement of an entire population just 'cuz you're too lazy to fill out an absentee ballot. Flag Abuse
Posted by: Anonymous at Sep 2 Exactly. None of the systems are perfect, but it's a much easier process to fill out a registration form and not worry about it again until election day than it is to play mail tag like you do when you apply for an absentee ballot. And if you think about it logically, you have until within a few days of the election to get your hand-written ballot sent in...do you really think that it's a top priority to get them counted? If someone wants to vote absentee, fine, but truthfully it's a much easier process to do it locally. Flag Abuse
Posted by: Anonymous at Sep 2 Absentee ballets are only counted if the race is close. Puts a whole different meaning on it doesn't it> Your vote wont be counted unless it is close - thats true disenfranchisement. Consider the military men and women overseas who are essentially forced to vote through absentee ballets. Flag Abuse
Posted by: Jonathan Daugherty at Sep 2 What about voting absentee? I realize there is something gratifying in pulling a lever or puching a card etc. but what's wrong with mailing something off? Yes, it could get lost in the mail, but then the polling place could burn down, the computer logs be hacked, and all power to the touch-screens be lost. I would bet that the mail system is reliable enough to handle your ballot. If you cannot order a ballot, fill it out, and send it back before the deadlines, you probably should reconsider if you are responsible enough to vote. If you can’t decide whom you wish to vote for before election day, you probably should reconsider voting at all. I have never understood the big issue with college students and voting. Absentee worked for me… Flag Abuse
Posted by: Anonymous at Sep 2 For anyone who is naive enough to believe voter fraud isn't an issue in VA: http://www.thenextright.com/soren-dayton/caught-illegal-voter-registration-in-va-and-rubix-cubes Flag Abuse
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