Should College students have to vote in their home districts?

I am a student and I do absentee ballots. It’s really the easiest solution for me.

I think they should be allowed to choose. They get one vote no matter what, so I don’t really think that it should matter where they are voting. They’re spending more time in the city that they go to school in, so that’s one reason they may choose to vote in their new city/state. And I wouldn’t begrudge them that right. They are residents of that city, clearly, otherwise they couldn’t register to vote there! Personally, I voted absentee for my home state of New York because I knew more about New York politics than Massachusetts politics and wanted to know who I was voting for in the local elections.

I always voted in my home district, but I totally understand wanting to vote where you live. Besides, voting in the town where you live for fourish years allows you to have a say on all kinds of local issues in addition to choosing a Rep.

They both make sense. If you are going to be living at school for 9–10 months out of the year, why not vote on those laws in that jurisidction, as they would affect you too.

@ShiningToast seconded. School year is longer. 4 yrs. is a long time to live somewhere. Should people stationed at military bases be allowed to vote in those regions even though they probably won’t be there long?

Edit: Youth voters are the most important thing to a democracy- we should all be thankful college kids vote at all.

Also, congressional districts have 600,000+ residents. No university is going to affect those numbers with just it’s students.

Besides, a university is a major economic force in pretty much any community where it’s located. Why shouldn’t it’s students and staff be involved in local politics?

I am not just refering to congressional reps. Also, city government and local laws and referendoms.

Like college kids vote anyway?

In college, I spent 80% of the year in the college town. That was my “home district”.

A portion of my rent went to local property taxes. I paid municipal utilities and the same sales taxes as any other resident. I worked and paid the local income tax.

How would you force me to vote in my parents’ district?

I don’t think the extreme liberalness of Berkeley is due to the college students. It certainly helps, but Berkeley has always been that way and that’s just the way it is. The college students might not live there for their whole lives, but they do live there for a great amount of the time and can be very involved in the city. I think they should be able to vote there if that’s what they want to do; they’re part of the city too and they’re living there.

@DominicX The liberal teachers live there too. :)

I know at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, the town’s population doubles during the school year. That is some voting power right there.

Shouldn’t it be a moral decision on the part of the voter? If the voter is a student attending in Houston but returns to Dallas for all the breaks and major holidays I don’t understand how the voter would feel compelled to register and involve himself (speaking generically) in Houston politics when his home is really in Dallas. On the other hand if the attendance is in Houston but the student hails from Burlington Vermont and travel could run into some bucks I could see the student going either way, the student could always vote absentee.
Regardless, no voter should be disenfranchised because of their status as a student and registration should be based solely on residence.

@tominhouston Welcome to Fluther. Lurve

The first time I became a ware of the situation is while listening to a locally produce radio show. The program was blatantly right wing, anti-tax, small government (etc.)and the host was ranting against students voting on campus. He made argument after argument, but none of them held any water. He complained that students had no ties to the town, and they spent less than half a year on campus etc… But again, not true.. held no water. Ultimately, the only reason I could come up with is most college kids are liberal and vote Democrat, and as they were Right leaning, they didn’t care for it.
These, fine up standing citizens went so far as to “monitor ” polling places, challenged every college aged person’s ballot, lied by claiming that registering to vote on campus negated any scholarships they had. I only wish the AG had the balls to go after them for voter intimidation.