College students are free to vote in any locality they live in as long as they cast only one ballot in an election, State Board of Elections officials said Monday.

That word came more than two weeks after controversy erupted after a Montgomery County official warned that Virginia Tech students could face problems if they registered using their university addresses.

But the revised guidelines, distributed through the board's Web site and in an e-mail to Virginia registrars late Monday, still gives broad authority to election officials in determining whether residence halls and other student housing can be considered a valid address.

Registrars may ask about a student's financial independence, employment and their parents' residence to determine an application's validity, but students are not required to respond to those questions, the guidelines issued Monday state.

The revision comes amid an intense registration drive on the Tech campus led by Barack Obama's Virginia campaign, and less than a month before the Oct. 6 deadline to register to vote.

The state's response follows a firestorm of criticism leveled at Montgomery County Registrar Randy Wertz, who on Aug. 25 sent out an inaccurate news release that warned parents could lose their child's tax dependency status if their children registered to vote with their Blacksburg addresses.

Wertz has since acknowledged the error and said the statement, which was written by an intern, was too strongly worded. He has also said it was not the county's intent to intimidate voters, which the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia has said was an effect of the statement. Wertz was out of the office Tuesday and could not be reached for comment.

Virginia-based Obama campaign officials were the first to criticize Wertz's statement, saying it would have a "chilling effect" on student voter registrations.

James Alcorn, a policy adviser for the State Board of Elections, said while it was inappropriate for Wertz to issue tax advice, "the real irony of this is, according to Randy, he's never denied a student to register to vote."

"What people were upset about was what I would say is an issue of emphasis," Alcorn said. "The registrars, God help them, they were trying to help people. They were trying to tell people there are impacts from registering to vote. What we're saying is, you're setting yourself up for criticism, even if you have the best of intentions."

Much of the controversy stems from the state law's definition of domicile, which a resident must establish to obtain voting eligibility. The definition has been used in the past -- most recently in a 2004 case involving College of William and Mary students -- to deny students the right to register in transient housing such as dorm rooms.

The guidelines issued Monday make clear that there is no minimum time a voter has to live in any one place for that to be their domicile.

Alcorn said the list of questions registrars may ask students was included in the revised guidelines because it is part of state law, adding that registrars need discretion "to ensure that rolls are accurate." He said the law also could apply to other voters with transient status, such as the homeless or people who own homes in two states.

In Radford, where registration drives are also under way, Registrar Tracy Howard said he plans to make calls to students using dorm addresses with queries about whether they qualify for voter registration in Radford. That decision has already drawn fire, Howard said, but he said he's hasn't changed his mind.