College voters key, but deadlines, paperwork make voting difficult

November's presidential election will be a close contest, and polls suggest that mobilizing the 18-24 year-old demographic should be an important goal for both major political parties.

A June 2003 survey by the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard showed that the new demographic up for grabs is the "campus kid" -- the politically aware college student.

The survey, reported in the Chronicle of Higher Education, found that 59 percent of college students said they would "definitely be voting" in the 2004 election and 27 percent said they would "probably" vote. In 2000, only 32 percent of 18-to-24 year olds voted.

The authors of the survey linked the expected increase in political participation to Sept. 11 and the Iraq war.

The findings of the Kennedy School survey are mirrored by trends at Tufts -- a March 3 Daily poll showed that 36 percent of students claim to be more politically active than in the previous year. Twenty-seven percent of students said they were less politically active than last year.

Registration deadlines, however, have made voting difficult for college-age students.

Students at Tufts whose primary addresses are not in nearby communities have to decide whether they will register to vote in Medford or Somerville, or request an absentee ballot to vote in their home communities.

Brian McNiff, Communications Director for Massachusetts Secretary of State William Galvin, said that students who are interested in voting need to keep track of registration deadlines. "I think that if they don't continue their registration at home, they may be up in the air as to where they want to [vote]," he said. "Sometimes indecision takes them past the registration deadline."

McNiff said that students should check with their local officials where they are registered to vote. "We encourage them to do that before the registration deadline, which falls 20 days before the election," he said.

"It's really up to them," said Medford's Senior Clerk of Voter Registration Joanne Abbott, regarding students' choice of where to vote. "If they are here and they'd like to vote they're welcome to."

Abbott said the only problem she has encountered is students who register to vote in Medford and their home community. In that case, she said, "we find out an address to send a copy of their [voter registration] card" so that their home state is notified to take them off the list of registered voters.

Medford keeps a list of registered voters who are Tufts students, while Somerville does not.

A Somerville elections clerk said that it does not matter where students are registered because students are more interested in presidential or gubernatorial elections than town elections.

"We don't encourage them either way -- it's their choice -- some prefer to stay registered in their home community," she said.

Even though the "campus kid" is an important factor in the 2004 election, examples from across the country have shown that some towns and cities do not welcome the college vote.

The Chronicle reported two incidents in the past two years --at Skidmore College and Texas A&M University -- where local officials "intimidated" student voters. In one case, at Texas A&M, the local district attorney said that student voters had "feigned residency" and "deprived" the county of "fair elections."