Voting Registration Headaches at Virgina Tech

by Jason Sanders | September 8, 2008 at 08:42 am

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Many students register to vote at their college, using the college address as their primary residence. However, the local registrar of elections sent out letters to Virginia Tech students saying that if they do this, there will be serious consequences.

The releases warned that such students could no longer be claimed as dependents on their parents’ tax returns, a statement the Internal Revenue Service says is incorrect, and could lose scholarships or coverage under their parents’ car and health insurance.

As a result, many students decided against registering despite arguments from Obama supporters that there were no consequences from voting.

Student-registration controversies have been a recurring problem since 1971, when the 26st Amendment lowered the voting age to 18 from 21, and despite a 1979 ruling by the United States Supreme Court that students have the right to register at their college address.

Virginia is not the only state with murky guidelines. South Carolina’s voter-registration site, for example, says students who want to register to vote at their college address must demonstrate “a present intention to remain in the community.”