The Daily Press has boldly come out against letting the poor vote:
Were they all to register and vote, they could impose their wishes on policies and priorities. They could determine how tax revenues — the money contributed by other residents — is spent, without contributing much themselves. Does that make sense?
Oh, no, I’m sorry — it turns out they’re talking about students. Oops!
And I think they make a good point. I can understand students wanting to vote in local elections where they go to school, but if they are not paying local taxes or residing there year ’round, then why should they have a say on what tha locality and its people do with its long term money and development, especially if the student’s leaving there when they’re done in four years?
For starters, they certainly are paying taxes to the locality. In the case of Williamsburg, they contribute to the city’s 5% meals tax when they eat out. When they pay their phone bill they pay that 10% phone service tax and the $2 E911 tax. When they pay rent they contribute to the $0.77/$100 local property tax. Come to think of it, I’m having a hard time thinking of any local taxes they’re not paying. Compare whatever contribution they’re making to their college town to the contributions they’re making in that period to their hometown — clearly, the hometown is getting the short end of the stick.
More important, this is a terrible line of logic. People who contribute less to the public coffers deserve less services from government? That doesn’t make any sense at all.
Seeing as how I’m a licensed insurance broker specializing in high-end personal lines I feel the need to point out an awkward fact that could smack students across the face if they decide to legally call their dorm room their primary household and place of residence. In so doing, they are declaring that they are no longer members of the household at whatever address their parents live and are probably no longer eligible for any coverage under the parents’ homeowners policy. Claims for both liability and the students’ personal property would no longer be covered. Adult children of named insureds are only covered on a homeowners policy if they are members of the household.
I’m not crazy about the idea of students registering to vote in the place where they are seasonally going to school. I won’t go so far as to say that it should be banned, but at the very least there should be some consistency. It’s inconsistency that potentially makes the thing unfair. If a student wants to vote here but drives a car registered in New Jersey then he’s getting a say in what we do while avoiding paying his share of the car tax and vehicle registration fees that the rest of us pay. Little things like that would sure piss me off. If they want to join up then let them, so long as they do it whole-heartedly.
I agree that line of logic alone is an awful way to start thinking.
That said- when I went away to college I voted via absentee ballot as opposed to registering to vote where I went to school. I do think that unless they’re renting and residing in the community where they are going to college “year round” they shouldn’t be voting there.
Meals taxes and phone company surcharges just don’t cut it in my book. Tourists pay those taxes too. I could go on vacation for 1 month around election season and pay all of those taxes, but that wouldn’t entitle me to be able to vote in someone elses local election. Using that line of logic you might even be able to justify an illegal immigrant voting in a local election, they pay those taxes too.
From the article:
Those are all reasonable critera in my opinion for the purposes of determining residency.
Someone with an Illinois drivers licence that lists his parent’s home as his/her address, and is claimed as a dependant on his/her parents taxes, who is also paying “out of state tuition” at William and Mary or UVA, and hasn’t filed an in-state income tax return should not be voting locally. They should be voting via “absentee ballot” in the community they hail from.
I didn’t say that’s a reason why they should be able to vote, just that this line of logic does not qualify them for exclusion.
Come on, Waldo. Have you been drinking the Democrat Kool Aid too much lately? I thought you were more of a thinker than this.
Your subject line is misleading, to be charitable.
The story is not at all about preventing people to vote. It is all about determining *where* they should cast their vote.
It’s a joke, Dave. See the “Oops!” for details.
What a shame that I need to explain this: I’m not objecting to the editorial, or the desire to have people voting in the proper locality. Rather, I pulled out a single thread that relies on terribly, terribly flawed logic. I have previously objected just as strenuously (and in a similar style) to those who have argued that local elections should be held in May, rather than November, to make sure that “only the truly informed, engaged people vote.”
There’s nothing particularly tricky about this.
Yes, I get it. But does that mean your point is, “The Daily Press has boldly come out against letting [students] vote”.
I’ll say it again: I’m not objecting to the editorial, or the desire to have people voting in the proper locality.
Why do you hate voting so much?
It’s not terrible difficult to become a local resident is it? Does it involve having your name on a lease somewhere rather than just subletting? The last time I changed my permanent residency to a different state was in 1987, so I’m a little fuzzy on the details.
But the issue here is just that they shouldn’t be voting in two places at once (they’d get to vote twice for presidential elections, twice for state elections if they went to an in-state school), right? isn’t that the main argument against it?
I remained a VA Citizen and a VA voter for the five years I went to school in California, partly because I knew I was going to get the hell out of CA after I finished school, and partly because California politics is really frightening and bizaare. It remains a huge relief to me that Schwarzneggar was never my governer.
Heh, what student voters? I often had to nag friends to get them to even consider voting.
Most people my age and younger do not care, and I imagine with C’ville being a liberal haven as it is, most students at UVa probably see candidates winning whom they would support anyway. Other areas, perhaps Blacksburg and other schools in very rural areas (C’ville has a lot of rural surroundings, but clearly does not have a rural mindset), this might affect though.