Wednesday, May 03, 2006
College students lose at the ballot box
Christian Trejbal
Recent columns
- The wrath of Blacksburg
- Gmail isn't suitable for public records
- Candidates and their parties
- The aquatic center might sink
From the RoundTable blog
Another municipal election season has ended, and no doubt, college students in Blacksburg and Radford again missed an opportunity to shape the governments that affect their lives.
It is a common refrain in college towns that students are disengaged, that they see only the bars beyond the edge of campus, and that their education should include lessons in what it means to be a member of a community.
Why, then, does Virginia allow local election officials to make it so difficult for students to vote where their schools are?
Civic engagement is a two-way street. If the goal is to create active student-citizens who care about the places they live and abide by community standards, those students must be permitted to participate in the democratic process.
The argument against giving them the right to vote locally is superficially compelling. Most live near campus for only four or five years, and they financially depend on parents in some far-off city. They should vote there, not in a place where their presence is transient.
That sort of reasoning defies the foundations of American democracy. No other voter must prove intent to live in the same place for a long time.
For example, by fall, I will move to the New River Valley from Roanoke. That did not prevent me from casting a ballot in Tuesday's city council election. Right now, I am a Roanoke voter.
Citizenship is as much a state of mind as anything else. If someone lives in a place most of the year and thinks of himself as a resident, then no registrar should block access to the ballot box.
Moreover, even though students depart with more frequency than other citizens, new students replace graduating seniors. When students vote, they speak both for themselves and for their successors. The civic desires of tomorrow's students, it is safe to assume, will not differ radically from today's. Their collective voice is as valid as any other in the public dialogue.
Last month, the fight over student registration flared up in Williamsburg, where two College of William and Mary students wound up in court, suing for the right to vote. Their struggle was nothing new.
Twenty years ago, a Virginia Tech student sued the Montgomery County registrar for the right to vote. Her case ultimately settled in her favor, and the registrar agreed not to discriminate against students.
E. Randall Wertz, Montgomery County's registrar today, pegs the source of such legal battles on vaguely written state laws.
"The code is so gray," he said. "They've left it up to registrars essentially."
He has taken a very open approach consistent with the settlement 20 years ago. Tech students who live on or off campus can easily register to vote.
Tracy Howard, registrar for the City of Radford, has a narrower view of the rules. "Registering everyone is just as illegal as registering no one," he said.
He and his staff scrutinize every application. They reject nearly all Radford University dorm residents, but then help those students register in their hometowns, if they want to.
The differences between Montgomery County and Radford, however, seem to have little practical effect. Both places have dismayingly low registration numbers among young people.
For last November's election, there were 6,600 registered voters 25 years old and younger in Montgomery County, a mere 15 percent of all registered voters. Yet 18- to 25-year-olds -- boosted by Tech's 26,000 enrolled students -- make up one-third of the population.
Likewise, Radford University's 9,600 students help make the young segment of the city nearly half of the total population, but they only make up 18 percent of registered voters.
Imagine if those students organized and voted. They could easily land representation on the Radford and Blacksburg councils.
Yet no one to whom I spoke remembers a recent student candidate in Radford, and in Blacksburg, voters have rejected them. It will take increased registration to bring forth a credible student candidate.
Despite the uneven treatment of students by registrars around the state, the General Assembly this year again failed to clarify the rules and allow students to register to vote in any college town. The inertia against change is so great that Virginia21, a student lobbying group that works to register students, did not even make updating the rules a priority during the session.
College students often annoy campus neighbors, but they should not be second-class citizens on Election Day.
Nothing can force students to pay attention to local issues and get involved in the electoral process, but those ambitious few who do take an interest should be welcomed by the body politic. If they are, others might follow, improving the dialogue between campus and town.
