<p>Ohio has one-stop voting from September 30-October 6 - voters can register to vote and then cast their ballot immediately.
[quote]
Ohio has created a window in the election calendar that would allow residents instant gratification — register one minute, vote the next. It's also given the campaigns of Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain a chance to bank thousands of first-time voters during that Sept. 30 to Oct. 6 window.</p>
<p>Of the more than 470,000 students enrolled in Ohio's public colleges and universities in 2006, the most recent figures available, nine out of 10 were Ohio residents, the state Board of Regents said. To register to vote in Ohio, a person must be a resident of the state for at least 30 days immediately before an election.
<p>During the 2004 election, many students in Ohio were effectively disenfranchised because of a shortage of voting machines on college campuses. On a day that was pouring rain, many stood in line for up to 8 hours to vote. I remember this being a big problem at Kenyon in particular. </p>
<p>So if your kid attends college in Ohio and wants to vote there, its a good idea to take advantage of this early voting opportunity.</p>
<p>S attends college in Ohio but is not changing his voter registration until he gets to grad school next fall, wherever that may be. Also, I thought Ohio required some form of identification to prove a permanent resident such as OH DL or a utility bill, which S has neither.</p>
<p>Kansas does similar advance voting. It is great. You can vote 2 weeks or so in advance at large advance voting locations. We have had this for a couple of years. It improves voter turnout, at least in my part of the state. Now if advance voting could signal the postal service to quit delivery election mail after I have voted…</p>
<p>According to our secretary of state’s web site
May a college student register and vote from his or her school address in Ohio?
Yes, a student may vote using his or her Ohio school residence address. However, the student may not also vote an absentee ballot where he or she last lived (e.g. with one or more parent or guardian). When a college student votes from his or her school address, the school residence is considered to be the place to which the student’s habitation is fixed and to which, whenever the student is absent, the student intends to return, and is considered by the student to be his or her permanent residence at the time of voting.</p>
<p>As for the actual voting the following is the information from the same site about the required documentation
Early In-Person and Absentee Voting
The last four digits of voter’s Social Security number; or driver’s license number; or
A copy of a current and valid photo identification, (i.e. Ohio driver’s license, state ID card, government ID). Photo identification must show name and address; or
A copy of a current utility bill (including cell phone bill), bank statement, paycheck, government check, or other government document that shows the voter’s name and current address (including from a public college or university). </p>
<p>So I think there are many students who will have bank statements with their school addresses on them.</p>
<p>I really don’t understand this at all. There are some 470,000 college students in Ohio, many of whom are from other states. Let’s say that 100,000 are from out of state, just for discussion purposes. In today’s campus climate, the large majority of these students are likely to be registered Democrats and will vote for the Democratic candidates. Fine.</p>
<p>But, are they really Ohio residents? Are they paying Ohio income taxes? Or more pertinently, where do they state their address to be for Federal income tax purposes? It’s illegal to give a wrong address on a Federal income tax return.</p>
<p>So if a student at, let’s say Oberlin College, and lists their home in North Carolina as their mailing address on their Federal income tax return, are they being truthful in claiming Ohio residency for voting?</p>
<p>joel, I have the same situation, as a college student in PA. </p>
<p>I believe (although I don’t make enough $$ for it to matter) that I would pay PA income tax on income earned at school, and state income tax to my home state for my summer job. Someone who’s more in the know can correct me on this, but it’s been pretty well established that college students can, in fact, claim residency for voting purposes in their college state. If that weren’t the case, the local Republicans would have figured it out by now, and would be giving us a really hard time.</p>
<p>It’s fundamentally unfair for college students who are living away from home to vote at their college address. Take the Oberlin College example: 1,200 students, 90% of them registered Democrats can swing a tax levy vote one way or another or determine the outcome of a local election or even a County election. But these same students don’t have any skin in the game – no real connection to the community once they’ve graduated and moved on to grad school or work. But the community will be paying for the tax levy for 15 to 20 years after the students are long gone.</p>
<p>That’s just not right. </p>
<p>When I was in college and old enough to vote, I had to do it by absentee ballot. That should be the standard from a fairness standpoint, don’t you think?</p>
<p>“In 1979, a Supreme Court ruling stated that college students had the right to vote either at home or in the town where they went to school.”</p>
<p>(So, joel, do you find the following unfair, too?)</p>
<p>On Sept. 10, Chancellor Jerry Falwell Jr. delivered a high-minded message to the students at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va. The son of the late evangelical leader spoke of the students’ civic responsibility to vote. Then he made an announcement.</p>
<p>“We are planning to cancel classes on Election Day,” he said, his voice instantly drowned out by wild cheering. “Now I know what you care about,” he observed, laughing.</p>
<p>It’s part of a grand strategy to get Liberty’s 10,000 students to vote in Virginia. The university will bus students to the polls, stage an all-day concert complete with food, and lift curfew so they can watch the results on a giant-screen TV. </p>
<p>(I especially like the part about lifting the curfew)</p>
<p>I agree with Joel. Students have no skin in the game as far as local issues go. I don’t agree with college students being encouraged to vote in their college state. Absentee ballots from home are a much better method.</p>
<p>Well however we feel, the deadline to register in OH closed yesterday. Personally I don’t really have an issue with where students register and vote. I think at that age most students don’t grasp local issues and they might understand those where they spend most of their time (college) better than at home. With regards to taxes, most students and all renters don’t pay property taxes directly anyway so the concept of where you pay taxes equalling where you should vote I don’t think makes a lot of sense either.</p>
<p>you are absolutely correct. The Supreme court ruling came down when I was in college and settled the issue on my college campus. I can’t believe that it is still an issue today.</p>
<p>Vote where you live - kids who live on a residential campus actually live there. The issue of paying taxes is a non-issue. Poor people don’t pay taxes and we don’t disenfranchise them.</p>
<p>As far as Liberty U goes - yep, it works both ways.</p>
<p>StickerShock - in some college towns the students do have a skin in the game. How they vote can make a difference in local elections and how the town and the college relate.</p>
<p>Under your rationale, if stay-at-home parents don’t work, they shouldn’t be allowed to vote.</p>
<p>Besides, kids at college pay plenty of taxes: sales tax, utilities tax, gas tax. If they register to vote in Ohio, and then get a campus job, they will indeed pay Ohio income tax.</p>
<p>You can only have one “residence,” and traditionally the test is highly subjective.</p>
<p>Ohio benefits tremendously by having half a million college kids. I have no problem if they want to vote.</p>
<p>Nope, MSUDad. Anyone who is a household member of voting age is directly impacted by all kinds of local policies, bond issues, etc. College kids are more transient & likely to set up their own independent residence in their home states.</p>
<p>But StickerShock - college kids generally stay in the same community for four years! Sometimes five or six years. These days that is not very transient.</p>
<p>My daughter attends school in another state. She is a senior and is home less than one month per year. She even pays income tax to the state she lives and works. Whether or not she lives in a dormitory, rents an apartment from the school or rents an apartment on the local ecomony is immaterial.</p>
<p>My D is a student in Ohio, and will vote absentee as a GA resident. I didn’t even know there was another option. I do think it’s funny, though, that her dorm needs another “student representative” on the Board of Trustees, but she is ineligible for the position, because it is limited to Ohio residents only, because MU is a state school. So she can cast her vote for anything in Ohio, as long as it doesn’t have to do with her school. (Where we are paying beaucoups dollars as OOS, and I suspect, more than making up for the lack of tax dollars.)</p>
<p>Under your rationale, stickershock, only people of voting age are impacted by certain policies, which is wildly untrue. OOS students at, e.g., OSU are directly impacted by state actions, yet have no voice; how does that factor in? For those folks, it’s a far larger issue than a 2 mill library levy. (Also, bear in mind that OOS renters are paying those property tax millage increases for their landlords)</p>
<p>If Ohio policymakers see a need for a change, they can do so. My guess is that Republicans will be whining about it soon enough.</p>
<p>When students decided to go OOS, that was part of their decision, correct? There are tons of other disadvantages associated with going OOS. Applicants make an intelligent decision to choose college based on all criteria. Was this fact hidden somehow at the time of application? Somebody’s answer misled OOS applicant to think otherwise?</p>
So should toddlers be allowed to vote? They may want more publicly funded mommy & me swim programs.</p>
<p>Obviously we are only talking about voting options for those of legal voting age. I think allowing college kids to vote at their college location unfairly skews the outcome of local issues on the ballots. Regardless of which national candidate is helped by their votes.</p>
<p>Being an OOS student has nothing to do with it. Student who attend private school or who attend college away from home, in-state, may not be disenfranchised.
They may vote where they live.</p>
<p>Stickershock - I concede that the potential for college students to skew the local elections exists. But this exists for other groups as well. Women were disenfranchised and they have (and still have) the potential to skew elections. Same with Blacks.</p>
<p>In reality, the potential for the college vote to skew a local election brings out the “townfolk” - who suddenly remember they can and should vote.</p>
<p>We want our young adults to vote but when they haven’t lived at “home” for 2,3, or 4 years they have no idea how to vote on those local issues. Most then don’t bother voting in local elections.</p>
<p>No one is denying that a student who is a citizen and 18 on election day shouldn’t be allowed to vote. (Or that stay at home mom or dad, either.) </p>
<p>In Lorain County, Ohio, 4 and 6 years ago, the office of County Commissioner was won by fewer than 100 votes. It happens that I was an observer at the 2004 election in Oberlin and noticed that most of the Oberlin students voting at the library carried out of state driver’s licenses as their photo ID (Ohio DL not required until 2006) as well as a gold colored paper with the names of the Democrat candidates for whom to cast their votes. And when I say “most,” I mean at least 80% in this particular precinct. I actually counted the students who had the paper in hand. (Some who didn’t actually have the sheet in public view pulled it from their pocket when they got to the voting machines.)</p>
<p>So, these non-resident college students who didn’t even know who they were voting for until they read the gold colored sheet were responsible for the election of a County Commissioner even though 25% of the students would be moving on to other locations for grad school or jobs each year. This certainly smacks of unfairness, don’t you think?</p>
<p>Also, can anyone provide the actual case that the Supreme Court ruling applied to in the decision quoted by one of you earlier in this thread? Thanks.</p>