Home is where the vote is
College students should thoughtfully choose whether to register in college town
Eric Boose / Opinion Editor / The USD Vista
A member of Arizona’s state House of Representatives thinks students should not be allowed to register to vote using their campus address. State Representative Bob Thorpe, of Flagstaff, Arizona, has proposed a law that would make it illegal for college students in the state to list college residence halls as their address when registering to vote.
Thorpe contends that college students, who do not spend the full year on campus, are canceling out the votes of residents who live the entire year in Arizona. Thorpe’s bill therefore prohibits voters from registering at any address where they “do not intend to reside 12 months of the year,” according to The Arizona Republic.
At least in terms of voter registration, then, I am Bob Thorpe’s ideal of a college student. Despite attending the University of San Diego, I am registered to vote over a thousand miles away, in my hometown of Spokane, Washington. However, I bristle at Thorpe’s suggestion that college students should not be allowed to register using their campus addresses for a couple of reasons.
First, Bob Thorpe is a Republican, who won his last election by fewer than 600 votes. College students, including those in Arizona, are more likely to vote for Democrats. The Arizona Republic found that of voters registered in University of Arizona residences, 47% are Democrats, while only 20% are Republicans. At Arizona State University, 51% are Democrats, and 17% are Republicans. The Arizona Republic also reported that there were around 1,800 college students registered in Thorpe’s district using an address at Northern Arizona University.
From this perspective, Thorpe’s proposal reeks of voter suppression. Even though Thorpe himself will not be seeking re-election, it is hard not to be suspicious of a measure which would disenfranchise more likely Democratic voters than likely Republicans.
Second, and arguably more importantly, college students have legitimate interests in being able to vote in the city in which they attend school. Basically, college students spend about eight months in their college town — 75% of the year. That is eight months during which college students are subject to the laws of that state and ordinances of that city. If a student is registered to vote in a different state or even a different city, that student spends three quarters of their year obeying laws and ordinances passed by legislators they had no say in electing.
To get into some more specific examples, students are more likely to interact with the police in their college town, purely by virtue of spending more time there. Students who are registered somewhere else have practically no influence over the conduct of law enforcement in their college town. Students are far more likely to pay rent in their college town than their hometown as well. Being registered elsewhere means students have little-to-no say over the housing laws which are affecting them. For students who work while in school, a city’s minimum wage is ultimately decided by the local government.
State and local officials make a multitude of decisions that affect college students, from overseeing law enforcement to changing the minimum wage. In San Diego, our local officials make rules about parking, they fund our public transportation system, and they set local property and sales taxes. So much of what state and local governments decide impacts college students that it would be downright undemocratic to prohibit them from registering to vote in the city where they attend school.
Ultimately, every college student should be able to choose whether they register in their hometown or their college town. I have specific reasons for remaining registered in my hometown, but even then, I have considered changing that and registering as a San Diego voter. I will not say that every college student should register in their college town. There does not seem to be a blanket “right answer” to the question of where students should vote.
However, students should make a considered choice of where to register, and they should register to vote. And no matter where they are registered, they should vote.