Students encouraged to register to vote at local colleges

Liberty University student Claire Ayendi attends school locally, but always has been registered to vote in her home state of Maryland.

While she doesn’t plan to vote here, she does support her school’s recent push to get students registered to vote locally.

“I don’t see a problem with it, because we spend the bulk of our year in Lynchburg, and we should have a say,” said the chair of Liberty’s chapter of College Republicans. “A lot of us live here all year long.”

Liberty University Chancellor Jerry Falwell Jr. announced an unprecedented voter registration initiative Wednesday, and said registration forms would be handed out by the thousands.

But the question of where college students should vote is not always easy to answer, Lynchburg city Registrar Patricia Bower said Thursday.

“It’s a very difficult issue, and people have very strong opinions on it,” she said.

In late August, Montgomery County election officials issued a news release stating that college students who register to vote there cannot be claimed as dependents on their parents’ income tax returns.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia said that was incorrect, and sent letters to voter registrars in

each of Virginia’s college localities

urging them to accept students’ voter registrations.

Last week, the State Board of Elections Web site uploaded a new set of guidelines that Bower said may allow students to choose more freely.

The site now states, “A dorm or college address can be an acceptable residential address and does not disqualify you from voting.”

Up until that clarification, Bower had recommended students register to vote at their legal address — typically, the same address that’s listed on the driver’s license, and from where they pay taxes and car insurance.

Bower met with Liberty officials Tuesday and was informed of the school’s plans, she said.

“So I’m thinking that we’ll probably be registering a lot of dorm addresses,” Bower said.

Bower said this is the first time in more than 30 years of working with elections that she has seen a college organize such a drive.

Usually, voter registration drives at colleges are organized by student groups, she said.

Liberty plans to distribute voter registration forms to every student at dormitory hall meetings on Tuesday and in classrooms starting this week, Falwell said.

“We actually had to print about 6,000 (forms) because the State Board of Elections didn’t have enough,” he said.

Other area colleges are involved with the voter registration process to a lesser extent.

Lynchburg College provides a voter registration form to new students when they move in, said spokeswoman Shannon Brennan. Friday, the college held a voter registration drive as part of its kickoff for the “Year of the Citizen.”

Sweet Briar College sends its students guidelines on registering to vote, and encourages them to register before moving to the school, spokeswoman Jennifer McManamay said. It also provides absentee ballots to student groups that distribute them.

Randolph College tends not to get involved in voter registration, spokeswoman Brenda Edson said, but supports student-led registration efforts.

On Election Day, Falwell said, Liberty will cancel classes and redirect buses to the polls at Heritage Elementary School, where students at dorm addresses would vote.

“If we have a huge number of students register on campus, what we’re hoping to do is to have them vote with absentee ballots so they don’t crowd everyone out over at Heritage,” Falwell said.

Bower said extra voting staff also may be on hand at the site if registration numbers are high.