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Voting when in college


Night Elf
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Does anyone know how this works? My dd lives in a different county. Her license still has our address but she's registered to vote in her school county. At the polls this morning, they made her change her address on the paperwork because her current address didn't match her license address. She changed it but she's scared her vote won't count. I just checked her voter registration record and she voted at her correct facility. 

She only has a learner's permit and isn't practicing driving so she's no where near getting a regular license. Should she change the address on her license to her school address? Voting has been the only problem she's had with her address on her permit.

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She should keep her permanent address on her license; her school address will likely change every year.  If they let her vote, her vote will count.  

ETA: In future elections she may need to vote at your polling place if she doesn't change her license and voting addresses, but that may be easier and less expensive than replacing her license every year while she's in school.

Edited by klmama
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If you keep your address at home on your government ID, you're better off voting absentee in order to be sure.

Did she cast a provisional ballot then? I've been reading that if you did, that you can take the initiative and follow up about it yourself by checking and and reasserting your proof of address or whatever was out of order in order for it to count. If a race she cares about ends up within a few thousand votes, those provisional ballots can come into play big time.

This is one of the reasons that students are a vulnerable group (along with new citizens, elderly people, and the poor) when it comes to a lot of new voter ID and exact match laws.

Edited by Farrar
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My kids have done it differently, and I think either way is okay.  It's so easy to register to vote now, often same day (I think that depends on the state?).  You don't need to change your permanent address.

I just looked it up on our state's website, and it says:  If you are a college student living at school, you can choose whether to register at home or at school, but not both.   (You do need to show a school photo ID.)

This year, one of my dd's was planning to do early voting at our courthouse last time she was home.  (She just graduated from college this past spring and is between permanent residences.)  We ended up having a small family emergency so that didn't happen.  Now she's in staying in a metro area a couple hours away, temporary living with relatives for a month or two until she can move into her new apartment (in that same area).  So, she's going to vote in that area now instead.  She has nothing with an address on it there from that area (no type of ID).  But our state allows her to bring a "Voter Voucher" -- someone who is already registered to vote there and can vouch that she is presently living where she says she is living.

Of course now she doesn't get to take part in any local voting (from her hometown), but she can take part in her new city's local voting, if she chooses.

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Our boys use/used our home address as their permanent address, even though they have/had off campus apartments in their college towns. We saw no need or reason to use a schooling related address on anything, as it was apt to change every year. They are/were only 90 minutes away from home and have/had their cars, so it was a relatively easy thing for them to come back at some point during the early voting period. DS19 has no Friday classes this semester, so he came home last Friday morning, we went out for lunch, voted, and he drove back to his apartment. 

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While in college, my kids used the family home as permanent address and voted by absentee ballot.

ETA: If she is a registered voter, was on the voting register, and was able to prove her identity, her vote should count. The fact that they are correcting their address lists should have nothing to do with that. They did let her vote, didn't they?

Edited by regentrude
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I live in a very very blue area of a blue state.  Not a lot of suspense about where our electoral votes will go, or who will represent us in Congress.

My kid goes to college in Florida, so he registered down there to have more a say.  He didn't need to change his license. He did  need to register by mail instead of in person.

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16 hours ago, regentrude said:

While in college, my kids used the family home as permanent address and voted by absentee ballot.

ETA: If she is a registered voter, was on the voting register, and was able to prove her identity, her vote should count. The fact that they are correcting their address lists should have nothing to do with that. They did let her vote, didn't they?

Oh yes. She voted. I told her if her vote wouldn't count, they would have told her she couldn't vote. We never even thought about absentee voting. She registered to vote in her school county her first year at school. The school has voting booths up at the student center for a couple of days but she waits until election day and goes to her official polling facility.

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  • 5 weeks later...
On 11/6/2018 at 8:11 AM, Farrar said:

If you keep your address at home on your government ID, you're better off voting absentee in order to be sure.

Did she cast a provisional ballot then? I've been reading that if you did, that you can take the initiative and follow up about it yourself by checking and and reasserting your proof of address or whatever was out of order in order for it to count. If a race she cares about ends up within a few thousand votes, those provisional ballots can come into play big time.

This is one of the reasons that students are a vulnerable group (along with new citizens, elderly people, and the poor) when it comes to a lot of new voter ID and exact match laws.

 

We live in Oregon and probably take ease of voting very much for granted as we can vote by mail. Ds attends school in Washington D.C. and utilizes absentee voting. This last semester he was in Chile, so he was able to print his ballot and mail his vote. I believe there is a way to check if your ballot was received. We simply drop ours off at the box in the local library.

 

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On 11/7/2018 at 4:32 PM, Night Elf said:

Oh yes. She voted. I told her if her vote wouldn't count, they would have told her she couldn't vote. We never even thought about absentee voting. She registered to vote in her school county her first year at school. The school has voting booths up at the student center for a couple of days but she waits until election day and goes to her official polling facility.

 

This is how I first registered to vote, and it was also how I ended up being called for jury duty in the town where I went to univ in my first semester there 😳.

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