Associated Press Writer

 (June 1, 2004)

After complaints, county to decide if students can vote on campus
By Joel Stashenko
June 1, 2004

ALBANY, N.Y. -- Oneida County said Tuesday it will stop telling college students they can't register to vote locally amid complaints that the students are being deprived of their constitutional right to vote.

County attorney Randal Caldwell said letters telling prospective voters to enroll where they grew up will be discontinued while his office determines if the Board of Elections has to allow students to register locally.

The Brennan Center for Justice at New York University Law, the New York Civil Liberties Union and the New York Public Interest Research Group called last week on the county to accept registrations from students at Hamilton and other colleges in the central New York county.

"On the one hand, Oneida County welcomes students with open arms because the colleges are important to the economy," said Russ Haven, legislative counsel for the college student-supported NYPIRG. "On the other hand, they slam the door to the polling place when the students try to vote in the communities where they live."

Federal courts have established the right of students to vote in their college communities, the three groups say. But a New York state Board of Elections official said it has never been clarified in New York state.

The state says county boards of elections can quiz prospective enrollees "to determine if they are permanent-enough residents," state Board of Elections spokesman Lee Daghlian said.
"The statute on the books does give them discretion," Daghlian said.

When Young Han and other Hamilton College students asked for registration forms, they got letters back saying, "The Oneida County Board of Elections is encouraging students to register and vote from their home counties. Enclosed please find a registration form to mail to your home county."

Han, 21, said he considers Oneida County his home, not Lynnwood, Wash., where he grew up. The economics major, who will be a junior this fall, said he spends all but two months of the year in Clinton, where the college is located. The money he spends _ including tuition and board _ helps the local economy, Han said.

"I feel very disenfranchised," he said. "I think (young) people are becoming more and more alienated from the political process. This represents the ultimate alienation. They are deliberately and bluntly saying, `You can't vote here."'

The two Oneida County Board of Elections commissioners, Republican Patricia Ann Di Spirito and Democrat Angela Pedone Longo, did not return repeated calls seeking comment.

In the 2000 presidential election, only 29 percent of the 18 to 24-year-olds eligible to vote nationally cast ballots.

"The young are looked down upon for an alleged failure to participate in American civil life _ but are in fact often discouraged or prevented from participating in the politics that most affect them," said Peter Maybarduk of the Washington, D.C.-based Studentvote.

College students throughout the country have experienced difficulties registering to vote from their dormitory addresses, according to Maybarduk.

"It is as though the 26th amendment had been repealed and the right to participate in politics is suspended pending graduation from the university," Maybarduk said.

His group, the American Civil Liberties Union, Public Interest Research Groups, MTV's "Rock the Vote" and other groups are trying to organize college-age students to fight for the right to register in their college communities.

Legislation declaring that college students must be allowed to register from dormitory addresses has passed several times in the Democrat-dominated state Assembly but failed in the Republican-controlled Senate. Privately, Senate aides say Republicans are worried about shifting local voting dynamics in traditional Republican communities upstate by allowing presumably Democratic-leaning students at local campuses vote.

"People may be looking at New Paltz and saying, `Well, students can really shift elections,"' Haven said of the Hudson Valley village that hosts one of the more liberal-leaning campuses in the State University of New York system. New Paltz's mayor is a former student at the college. Haven said students more likely vote based on which party is in the White House.

The 18- to 24-year-olds who voted for president in 2000 appear to have split almost evenly between Republican President Bush and Democrat Al Gore.

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