College logistics: voting, driver's licenses....

[Bev in B'ville]

I was watching the news this morning and voter issues was a major story. I started wondering what the norm is for students who go out of state for college.

 

Does the student register to vote in the state they're residing in, or does said student register at home and request absentee ballots?

 

Along those lines, what's the norm for other stuff, like driver's licenses and car registration?

 

My dd is applying to only one in-state university, all the rest are out-of-state so I'm guessing she'll be heading out of state for college. I was wondering how everyone else handled this.

[TravelingChris]

My son kept his voting and his driver's license in the state we lived in (his permanent residence). Then when we moved and he enrolled in an instate school, he changed registration and dl to match the new state where he was both living and attending school.

 

Both dh and I kept out permanent residence dl and voting registration in our original states when we went to school. I think that is the usual way things are done.

[Gwen in VA]

Who gets to vote is a hot topic in my city, a college town where the college students (when school is in session) make up about 30% of the population.

 

At least in Virginia, voter registration requirements are decided by the individual cities and counties. Charlottesville (home of UVA) has slightly different voting registration requirements than Williamsburg (home of W&M). A lot seems to depend on whether the student lives on-campus or off-campus.

 

The norm seems to be to vote absentee and to keep car registration, etc., in the student's home state, but my kids do know a few kids who have transferred all of that to their college residence.

[edithcrawley]

I was watching the news this morning and voter issues was a major story. I started wondering what the norm is for students who go out of state for college.

 

Does the student register to vote in the state they're residing in' date=' or does said student register at home and request absentee ballots?

 

Along those lines, what's the norm for other stuff, like driver's licenses and car registration?

 

My dd is applying to only one in-state university, all the rest are out-of-state so I'm guessing she'll be heading out of state for college. I was wondering how everyone else handled this.[/quote']

 

 

For voting, (at least in Indiana), you have to vote in the county (or request absentee), with the address that is listed on your Driver's license. Normally, if you are in the dorms, the DMV will not allow that as a valid address for a DL. If the student gets an apartment or something, then they can bring an electric bill or something to prove address change and the DMV will honor that. In some states, you can renew a DL in any county even if you don't live there, you just can't change the address info. I hope that made sense

[Michelle in MO]

I've been wondering the same thing, Bev, about the voting issue. If the laws vary from state to state and perhaps even city to city, I really need to research this soon.

 

Thanks for the reminder!

[Bev in B'ville]

I've been wondering the same thing, Bev, about the voting issue. If the laws vary from state to state and perhaps even city to city, I really need to research this soon.

 

Thanks for the reminder!

 

If a person is living in an area and will be impacted by issues coming to a vote (e.g. local sales tax, etc.) I think they should be able to vote on it. If my dd goes out of state to college (and I'm pretty sure she will), our local issues and perhaps even our state issues may be irrelevant to her.

 

Wherever she ends up, she'll be there approximately 9 months out of the year. I suppose we'll have to abide by the state laws on this issue if they exist, but if given a choice, I don't know. I can see both sides of this coin and make arguments either way.

 

Also, I'm wondering about taxes, specifically about part-time jobs. Will she pay state taxes for both GA and whatever state she's in? Would getting a driver's license for that state help or confuse the issue?

 

It's early for me I suppose to start thinking about this, but she's applying this year and all of those types of questions have come up. I'm still debating about setting up a checking account here (she already has a savings account) or waiting until we get to the city she'll be living in because of ATM fees. Plus, sometimes it's just easier to have a bank branch to walk into when questions and/or problems arise.

[Jane in NC]

 

Also' date=' I'm wondering about taxes, specifically about part-time jobs. Will she pay state taxes for both GA and whatever state she's in? Would getting a driver's license for that state help or confuse the issue?

 

[/quote']

 

My son has been employed in another state for the last four summers. There is a threshold at which a state withholds taxes. In my son's case, when he had withholdings, a tax return was filed for a refund. His total income (including interest and dividends) was subjected to NC taxes. His unearned income was not listed on the other state's return.

 

When I was a grad student, taxes were not withheld from my stipend. So I suspect that the tax situation may depend in part on how the income is classified. Perhaps someone could weigh in with work study funds. Are taxes withheld?

[Murmer]

A lot depends on where your child wants to be a resident. Ie many student want to get instate tution at an out of state school, so they would want to change residency to the state of the college. Therefore they would want to vote, get a dl and register their car in the new state. If residency for college is not a problem then most students kept primary residency in their home state. That is until they married and then they had to change residency.

[Hannah C.]

I go to the TX college which has the most out of state students of all TX colleges (according to admissions). All of my friends who wanted to vote and were not from the college's district (even kids from other parts of TX) received absentee ballots to vote in the last presidential election. Some also get absentee ballots to vote in local elections. I believe most of them still have out of state driver's licenses and license plates, which means that they are out of state residents.

 

Some of my friends have chosen to move to TX and establish TX residency in order to get some TX-specific financial aid. They changed their DLs, license plates, etc. and would then also change their voter registration.