by Steve MacDonald

A group called Campus Voter Project is encouraging out-of-state college students to vote in the college town in which they happen to be on election day. Not by absentee or mail-in ballot where the tuition bill or their tax refund would go.

No, they want you voting in the town your college or university is in – (as if it needs more Democrat votes).

Register at School or Home

Students have a decision about where to register to vote.

You have a right to register to vote at the address you consider the place where you live, whether that is your family’s home or the place where you attend school. You should update your registration anytime this home address changes.

You may only be registered and vote in one location.

Tuition Status

Being deemed out-of-state for tuition purposes does not prevent you from choosing to register to vote in your campus community.

It fascinates me how a state (New Hampshire has been like this for nearly two decades) can allow universities to discriminate against students in this manner. They give them the right to decide ballot measures, how other people will be taxed (or how much freedom they’ll have – depending on who gets elected with those votes) but demand the student pay two to three times as much for the same education as resident students who pay in-state tuition.

It almost sounds like an education poll tax because we know from recent history that requiring them to get a state ID or driver’s license is an undue financial burden. That’s what the folks who want out-of-state students voting in local elections often claim.

What to do?

The New Hampshire legislature tried it at least once: pass a bill to grant any student who registers and votes in the state of NH in-state tuition rates. Vermont won’t even give such an idea the time of day, but the Granite State should consider it again. Call it the Economic Equity in Education bill. Suppose a student feels like they live in New Hampshire for voting purposes, regardless of their in-state-rate ineligibility on any other (typically dozen or so) criteria. In that case, they get a refund for the difference between in-state and out-of-state tuition and pay in-state rates as long as they remain registered and on the NH voter rolls.

An aging population that needs young blood would benefit from the increase in youth and inexperience that the more affordable education provides. We could lower the total student debt burden, which, in New Hampshire, is significant, saving taxpayers money when the folks who want non-residents voting here promise to bail them out.

Students from poorer states who might not otherwise seek to vote in a state where they don’t live might be able to afford higher learning right here, in New Hampshire (including students who were planning to attend a school in Vermont).

Call a representative wherever they may live (Democrats have elected non-resident students to the NH Legislature) and ask them to support an Economic Equity in Education Bill.

Stop overcharging non-resident voters for the same education.

Stop discriminating against “voters”  whose only sin is living outside the state.

It’s the right thing to do!