Ahead of this year’s presidential election, many out-of-state students faced barriers in receiving and submitting absentee ballots in time to vote. Varying state laws regarding notarization and voter registration procedure, as well as delays in approval of mail-in ballot requests, sparked confusion and frustration as several students feared their votes would not be counted.
Students who voted for the first time — whether via absentee ballot or in general — faced navigating the sometimes complicated voting process going into the election. Third-year College student Ellie Strahorn, for example, spoke to how voting for the first time can be confusing with varying policies from state-to-state.
“Because this is my first time voting in an election, I was nervous about doing it wrong, so I wanted to make sure I was on the right track,” Strahorn said. “I didn't really know what I was doing and who to ask about things, and also [the fact] that it varies by state makes it hard.”
Specifically for out-of-state students looking to vote in their hometowns, those from states which implemented more restrictive policies regarding the process for applying and receiving an absentee ballot faced more challenges in getting out their vote. For example, some states required students to mail in their requests for a ballot while others allowed students to apply for a ballot online.
Even after following the right steps to request a ballot, some students still did not receive a ballot in time for the election.
In addition to the procedural challenges of requesting ballots, one of the biggest hurdles students faced for returning their absentee ballot was having to receive notarization. According to the U.S. Vote Foundation, a nonprofit and nonpartisan organization committed to providing voting information to U.S. citizens worldwide, states including Missouri, Mississippi, Oklahoma and South Dakota — require notarization to either receive an absentee ballot or have it be officially counted.
In order to notarize an absentee ballot, a prospective voter must receive certification of the authenticity of a signature from a licensed official. To do so, a student must find a notary public and may have to make an appointment or travel to one.
Strahorn, a St. Louis Mo. native, was unaware of this policy prior to receiving her absentee ballot and only learned of it after seeing that her ballot was stamped with the words “may need to be notarized.” Upon learning that notarization was required, Strahorn faced the additional challenge of going to a notary’s office on two separate occasions to find an available notary officer.
“I went to the bookstore, and they had a notary there … but the first day I went … [they said] ‘Oh, I think she's already left for the day,'” Strahorn said, adding that the person who helped her said the notary is not always there during the stated hours.
Notarization was not the only voting obstacle students faced, as several students did not receive their absentee ballot with enough time to vote before ballots were due in each state.
Third-year College student Molly King mailed a request to vote absentee in her hometown of Baton Rouge, La. King did not ever receive her ballot and was unable to see the status of her registration through the online portal. After a week, King said she contacted the state registrar and learned that she could have emailed the registrar her request by sending a copy of her student ID and forms to the Louisiana state registrar.
After emailing the necessary forms, King still did not receive an absentee ballot and instead opted for in-person voting, utilizing Virginia’s same-day voter registration policy. She stated that the process for in-person voting in Virginia was quick and easy, but that she wished she knew that she could have submitted her absentee ballot request to Louisiana online before having to wait for a ballot that did not arrive.
“I emailed my registrar of voters, and they said I can email them my request, which was [mentioned] nowhere on the website, and would have been helpful to know that I could just email them my request and my student ID,” King said. “And then I still never got my ballot, so I just same-day voted.”
Students from Texas also struggled to receive their absentee ballot in time for the election due to new legislation which has led to more absentee ballot applications being rejected than in previous elections. Senate Bill 1 was signed by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott to “protect the right to vote and to crackdown on illegal voting” by establishing new rules for voting by mail, including a ban on the mass distribution of mail-in ballot applications and a requirement that a copy of state IDs be mailed to the state registrar in order to be considered for an absentee ballot.
According to The Texas Tribune, Texas is one of only eight states without online voter registration for all residents, requiring that voters instead fill out paper forms to register and request an absentee ballot. As a result, some voters who filled out forms found out too late that they were not properly registered and were unable to vote in-person
This was the case for third-year College student Olivia Stapleton who, after mailing a request for an absentee ballot in Texas Oct. 16 set to arrive before Oct. 19, said she did not receive confirmation about whether her request was approved for over a week.
Stapleton stated that she called the Travis County registrar’s office multiple times a day before finally receiving word Oct. 27 — two days after the deadline for submitting absentee ballot requests — that the registrar had not reviewed any absentee ballot requests since Oct. 22.
According to Stapleton, the registrar got back to her less than a week before the election saying that her absentee ballot request was approved, but by then she felt it was too late to return her ballot before the deadline and decided to vote in-person in Virginia instead.
Stapleton said if these deterrents can prevent someone who was very intent on voting from doing so, like she was, that those who were more apathetic could be further deterred from casting a ballot.
“I have always been a pretty involved person politically so I was determined to vote in this year’s election,” Stapleton said. “But if [this happened] to someone who cared even just 5 percent less, I could see them saying this is too much, I don't want to jump through all these hoops and just call it a day.”
Jada Benefield, Student Council chief of Cabinet and third-year College student, stated she fielded several questions and concerns from out-of-state voters through her work with the Legislative Affairs Agency, a branch of the Student Council Cabinet that aims to register students and get them out to vote. Benefield stated that she herself is an out-of-state student from Texas, and upon hearing many other Texan students having trouble receiving their absentee ballot, she chose to register in Virginia.
“Historically, some students have requested absentee ballots, didn't receive it in time and then felt like they were unable to vote. So we've been receiving emails today with that particular issue of students requesting an absentee ballot and it never came in,” Benefield said.
To assist students in the voter registration process ahead of the election, Benefield and her fellow Cabinet members partnered with various student organizations to set up a series of voter registration booths — they also created separate voting Frequently Asked Questions for in-state and out-of-state students.
Albemarle County experienced a surge in election day voters with approximately two-thirds of registered Albemarle voters casting their votes Nov. 5. At the Slaughter Recreation Center polling station, where many on-Grounds students voted, 735 people had registered same-day and cast provisional ballots shortly before polls closed. The county experienced a small increase in overall voter turnout with 64,765 votes in 2024 compared to 64,284 in the 2020 election, while the City of Charlottesville experienced a decrease in votes cast from 24,429 votes in 2020 to 21,516 ballots counted in 2024.
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