A number of College organizations are working to encourage students to cast their votes this Election Day, whether it be with an absentee ballot or at the polls, using their controversial domicile status.
Although the New Hampshire legislature introduced a bill last year that would bar college students from claiming domicile, the governor, partially in response to a student backlash, vetoed it.
In addition to traditional election year activities this year, the College Democrats, College Republicans, Student Assembly, Rockefeller Center and the New Hampshire Secretary of State's office will help students sort through the confusion over their voting rights today. The Assembly, College Republicans and College Democrats are also sponsoring rides leaving every 10 minutes from various on-campus locations to take students to vote at Richmond Middle School.
New Hampshire's Deputy Secretary of State David Scanlan said that despite legislation requiring voter identification, college students in the state are permitted to vote in New Hampshire.
"College students have kind of a unique situation in that they have the choice of either voting in the hometown that they came from or voting in the place in which they are domiciled -- or 'where living' while they are going to college," Scanlan said.
He added that despite rumors that students might face repercussions for voting in New Hampshire, the law is very explicit in that college students, providing they have adequate identification, have a right to vote in the state.
Scanlan also said that the Secretary of State's office is involved in making all possible options known to students of New Hampshire colleges.
"Typically we try and communicate to the students that they have a choice, and in many cases it makes sense to them to vote for candidates that they may know from their hometowns," he said.
Scanlan said students may still register to vote at the polls if they carry a valid student identification.
Murray MacDonald, the College's associate director of Housing, said that he will be at the polls today to confirm the identity of Dartmouth students who wish to vote as part of a broader campus effort to ease the election process.
"My role basically is to verify that a person is a student at Dartmouth," MacDonald said. "I'll have a paper copy of students who are on campus and I'll also bring a computer so we can check and verify through that as well."
College Democrats President Michael Heslin '08 said that if a law barring students from claiming domicile had been passed, many students would have been disenfranchised.
"Since it's a different process to get an absentee ballot in every state and sometimes every town in the country, it's a huge impediment to students to get an absentee ballot in their home state," Heslin said. "In that respect it [such a law] would prevent a lot of students from being able to vote, and then if they wanted to register here they would have to get a new driver's license and jump through all sorts of hoops."
Heslin also said that while the presidential election two years ago motivated a huge number of students to vote in New Hampshire, this year many students are choosing to vote in their hometown using absentee ballots.
College Republicans President Rahul Sangwan '07 said he is on the same page as Heslin when it comes to legislation that could prevent students from voting here.
"For students a bill like that is obviously going to have a negative impact, and I don't think we should be passing legislation that will depress student voting," Sangwan said.
