I grew up in a very political home.  My grandmother was a poll worker/election inspector.  My best friend’s father was the county democratic chair.  I volunteered on my first presidential campaign in 1972 at the age of 11, stuffing envelopes for George McGovern.  My father could not believe, when I finally registered to vote, that I registered as a democrat.  My mother and my stepfather have been poll workers/election inspectors for years, although they opted to not work this year.

I have voted in every election I have been eligible to vote in since September of 1979 when I turned 18.  I never even gave it a second thought, when in college in the Adirondacks and later in West Virginia, to register in that location.  I would fill out an absentee ballot request and then the absentee ballot.  I have encouraged my voting age children – I have five of them this year – to vote here locally, either by going to the polls or by absentee ballot.  I also encouraged, once out of college and living on his own, my son in East Syracuse to change his registration to Onondaga County.

All this said, I don’t understand college students voting where they go to school.  Can someone out there explain to me how a temporary address at a college is good enough to allow registration to vote in that area?

I am not discouraging college students from voting.  Far from it.  I just want to understand why the big push to have them vote where they go to school.