GIVEN the enormous differences between the presidential candidates this year, the high stakes for the future of our generation, and the electoral importance of Virginia this year, it is no wonder there has been an uptick in students’ interest in the political process. While students should consider participating in the political process in as many ways as possible, including volunteering for the various campaigns, the first responsibility of every student at the University that is eligible to vote is to make sure they cast a ballot. Controversy, unfortunately, has ensued about where students are eligible to vote.
Everyone must vote in the jurisdiction in which they are registered, which for University students registered elsewhere means either completing an absentee ballot or driving home on Election Day. Many students from other parts of Virginia and from other states, seeking to avoid this hassle, have asked me if they can register to vote in Charlottesville. Here are the facts: The law requires you to register to vote where you are “domiciled.” This is the location that you consider to be your legal residence address. Virginia has left the precise meaning of “domicile” frustratingly vague, but according to the Charlottesville registrar, Sheri Iachetta, anyone who declares that Charlottesville is their home satisfies the domicile requirement.
To be very clear, out-of-state students that declare their home to be Charlottesville are also eligible to register to vote in Virginia. Despite their clear eligibility, I’ve encountered many out-of-state students who are worried about potential adverse consequences to declaring a Virginia domicile. The reality is that registering to vote in Virginia is unlikely to affect things like health insurance, tax dependency or tuition. States and institutions can make residency determinations for multiple purposes but voter registration is only one piece, and not usually the decisive piece, of these determinations. If you are among the few with a scholarship keyed to your state of origin, or if you are worried about adverse consequences of registering in Virginia, you can ask your parents.
Students are confused partly because of ambiguous articles in The New York Times and The Cavlier Daily about student voter eligibility. The deeper problem though is that the laws themselves are ambiguous and not uniformly applied. Local registrars have wide latitude in applying the rules, and some have used that latitude to refuse to register students and thereby deprive them of local political influence. This situation has to change. Either the law must be clarified by the legislature or the State Board of Elections must be given clear power to set ground rules for local registrars. The current situation of inconsistently applying election law must end.
Students can’t let confusion about voting rules prevent them from casting a ballot somewhere. Virginia is an important swing state in the general election. With its 13 Electoral College votes the commonwealth can provide the decisive margin if Senator Obama wins Iowa, as he is likely to do, and all the states won by John Kerry in 2004. Recognizing this, both campaigns have invested heavily here, in advertising and offices. The Obama campaign has gone so far as to open two Charlottesville offices, on the Corner and on the Downtown Mall.
Students at the University could provide the decisive margin in the decisive state. The more than 20,000 students here substantially exceed the margin of votes by which Jim Webb defeated George Allen in the 2006 Senate race, and are an order of magnitude greater than the margin by which George W. Bush won Florida in 2000.
In addition to registering yourself, volunteering to help spread the message that all students who declare Virginia to be their domicile can register here, and more generally to pitch your candidate, is critically important. I know from first-hand experience working with the Obama campaign that volunteer efforts make a difference. In fact, there is almost a fixed ratio of time invested in volunteer activities to votes obtained for your candidate. For volunteers willing to knock on doors that ratio is probably in the neighborhood of about one-half vote per hour of time. Each registered voter, each persuaded voter, each voter brought to the polls who might otherwise have forgotten, brings your candidate one step closer to the finish line.
There is much work to be done among your fellow students, as well as the surrounding community in Charlottesville, Albemarle County, and other nearby counties such as Louisa, Fluvanna, Nelson, Buckingham, Greene and Augusta. So this fall, once you’ve registered to vote and while you’re not hitting the books, take some time to hit the phones or the pavement for your candidate.
Andrew Winerman’s column appears Thursdays in The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at a.winerman@cavalierdaily.com.
Read More
KURTZWEIL: What we lose in the name of efficiency
By Paul Kurtzweil | 13 hours agoPenicillin was discovered in a moldy petri dish — this government would have it thrown out because it was wasting space on the counter.
RASHID: U.Va. must empower faculty and students through transparency
By Muhammad Ali Rashid | 23 hours agoBy attempting to contain, or even eliminate uncomfortable narratives, the administration incrementally consolidates power and frays communal trust.
YOUNIS: Muslim students deserve a better Ramadan on Grounds
By Ayat Younis | YesterdayRamadan at the University should not be a time in which students must choose between academic success and religious observance.
