College students in Alabama from other states aren't allowed to vote

[berniew1]

Anyone know of other places with this problem??


Minority College Students not allowed to vote in county where they go to school
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037592 11/02/04, 10:30 AM PST Registration-related problem Stillman College Campus, Hay Center, Huntsville, Tuscaloosa County, Alabama Stillman College is a majority African-American school. Many students registered to vote on campus before October 22 (caller re-registered after October 22). When they showed up at the polling site on campus, students originally from other counties in Alabama were told that they could not vote on campus, and that they had to go back to their original county and file a provisional ballot there.
The polling site officials told students from other states that as students, they could not vote in Alabama, and had to go back to their original state to vote.
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Students in a lot of states had experience like this. Arizona for example had similar statement made by official, publicized by Media.
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My kids in college live in houses in town(with roommates) and do all the things anyone else in the area does. And are likely as well informed on voting issues.

My son who is 200 miles away had to drive home to vote because he never got the Absentee ballot he applied for; like lots of similar students all over U.S.
http://www.flcv.com/studentv.html

[KaliTracy]

1. how prevalent is this, do we know yet? I remember voting for the first

time when in college -- I think, though I had just moved off-campus -- in any case, I registered and was able to vote without a problem in 1984. Ironic how 20 years later there was so much chaos...

[SouthernDem2004]

2. Basicly everywhere.... You have to vote where you declare you permanent

place of residence. Most college students still use their home and not the college area so they have to go home to vote. I had to do it when I was in college.

[BoomerSoonerOKU]

4. Not so...

All the student has to do is list his current address. Of course if you use your permanent address that happens to be in another area you will have to vote in their polling place. I had no problems voting in college, just have to list your current address... Not where your parents live.

[berniew1]

6. That didn't work in lots of areas. Many thousands of cases otherwise.

see the case reports

[berniew1]

5. Lots of college students list the local area as their permanent address

Many are from way too far to go to vote. Sounds like you went to a local college(almost). Most can't just take off from school in the middle of the week to go vote.

Supposedly they should be able to get an AB from back home if they keep that as their permanent address. But look at the EIRS cases and that didn't work for many this year. Extreme suppression. Many establish local residence for tuition cost differences, especially those in grad school which is lots. Most of those work locally also, TAs or part time jobs or job on campus.

And thousands of students had their registrations they filled out trashed. See New Jersey for example. But the students from those same colleges from other states had similar experience.

[berniew1]

9. New Jersey cases(& Maryland) there were lots more

043708 11/02/04, 2:17 PM PST Registration-related problem; Provisional ballot problem
Student intimidation 516 Bergen St, Newark, Essex County, New Jersey Voter and others were turned away without being given the chance to cast a provisional ballot. They were referred to the superior court at Rutgers, where: no parking was available; officers ticketed aggressively for improper parking; and state troopers set up a checkpoint. This voter obtained an order and was able to vote but many others were discouraged with the environment at Rutgers. Others had called about this situation.
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024321 11/01/04, 1:52 PM PST Registration-related problem; Problem based on student status Newark, Essex County, New Jersey UMDNJ University of Medicine and Dentistry, Newark campus had registration drive. She and her friends registered and never got cards and are not registered at County Clerk.
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051345 11/03/04, 11:39 AM PST Absentee-ballot related problem
malfeasance Southbound Brooke, Somerset County, New Jersey Requested absentee ballot months ago and never received it (he's a college student in PA) Said he has many other friends who did not receive their absentee ballots. Upset because this would've been the first time he would vote.
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&
Maryland
Hundreds of student voters at the University of Maryland, College Park, were turned away because they had been improperly registered by a campus organization. Students lined up at the Stamp Student Union, many to cast their first vote. But once inside, many were told their registrations weren't processed properly because the paperwork for 500 new voters never made it to the Board of Elections. http://www.votersunite.org/article.asp?id=3685

[berniew1]

3. GOP had big systematic program to prevent students from voting this year

See the huge number of similar cases all over the U.S.
http://www.flcv.com/studentvlhtml

Similar to an even bigger plan to prevent minority votes from being counted:
http://www.flcv.com/summary.html



But in Alabama(or New Mexico or Arizona or etc.) students weren't the only ones whos vote was suppressed.

Morgan County
046610 11/02/04, 3:58 PM PST Registration-related problem; Voter Intimidation Morgan County, Alabama Registered with school program last year - went to the poll and was told he was not registred - sent away with number for Morgan County - she is concerned because other of her friends who are native american think they are registered are being turned away as well.

Huge effort in New Mexico and Arizona to suppress native american's votes.
http://www.flcv.com/newmex.html
http://www.flcv.com/maricopa.html
http://www.flcv.com/pimaA.html

[HockeyMom]

8. Absentee Ballots

If they don't want to declare the place where they are going to school as their permanent residence (they can if want to), they can request an absentee ballot from the state they live in, even if that is still the same state where permanent residence is. All they have to do is say they are away at school. Ballot can be mailed to them at school, they fill it out and mail it back.

Daughter requested absentee ballot in March for the November election. Her school is in the same state we live in but about 6 hour drive. The ballot was mailed to her at school about 6 weeks before the election.

[berniew1]

10. Its not that easy for many or most; there was major suppression going on

regarding Dems getting ABs from many counties in many states. Hundreds of thousands documented to have requested them but unable to get them. (50,000 reported in one Florida county- Broward)
http://www.flcv.com/browardo.html
See the EIRS cases

students http://www.flcv.com/studentv.html

others ABs in http://www.flvc.com/summary.html



Of course for all I know, there may have been similar problem for Repubs requesting ABs from counties with Dem S.O.Es. But there is no clear indication of that in the EIRS that I'm aware of. It would be interesting to get list of Dem SOEs and Repub SOES and compare the number who were unable to get ABS after considerable effort.

[osiristz]

7. they could not vote in Alabama

Well, now they can't use dildos any more either, so go figure.

Must be part of the abstinence edumaction.

[berniew1]

11. New Hampshire & Mississippi & Missouri cases

New Hampshire
Reports of college students being discouraged from registering by local officials in a host of college towns are growing more common in New Hampshire. Story
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A451-2004Oct26.html


Mississippi
A 26-year-old graduate student said she registered to vote at a local church, but learned her form had been rejected by the clerk's office because the name of her dorm wasn't listed. The clerk's office never informed her of the problem, she said. She has since learned that dozens of students are having the same problem.
http://www.votersunite.org/article.asp?id=3637

Missouri
022588 11/01/04, 11:26 AM PST Absentee-ballot related problem Lockwood, Cass County County, Missouri Caller had taken registration forms for sons to local election office on october 6, 2004 along with request for absentte ballots to be sent to them in Denton Texas where they are students. On October 25, @004, Caller called local election office again as neither son had received ballots and requested that they be mailed again. As of today, Nov 1, 2004, they still had not recieved ballots.

Florida had the most reports by far, hundreds of cases reported;
Ohio had lots of reports also - but the number of students
affected in some other states was hundreds or thousands too.

[Wilms]

12. kick n/t