Many student voters studying outside their hometown face a key decision before they even get a ballot: Should they register to vote where they go to school? A Supreme Court ruling in 1979 affirmed the right of eligible students to register in the communities where they live during the academic year. But close to a half-century later, some people continue to question why students can vote in their college towns.
That issue resurfaced in discussions about changes Montana made last year to its requirements for residents who want to register to vote. After a student advocacy group sued, a state judge blocked the new restriction for now. That leaves the previous rules in place for Montana students who want to register to vote, including for the midterm elections through Election Day.
Now, as the wait continues for the judge's final ruling, some experts on student voting see the case as a reminder of common misunderstandings about the rights of some of the country's youngest voters. Voting in the U.S. is tied to residency, and state and local governments determine who qualifies as a resident who can register. To make sure certain voters, such as eligible students, are not discriminated against, federal law sets ground rules for residency requirements, explains Michael Hanmer, a professor of government and politics at the University of Maryland, whose research has focused on student voters.
"You can't apply different standards to different groups of people, so college students need to be treated the same as anybody else in the mix here who might be new to a particular place," Hanmer says. All eligible voters have a right to cast a ballot somewhere. And like owners of multiple homes, many students are able to choose which of their residences to be that somewhere for registering to vote.
In the legal world, it's known as their "domicile." "It's defined as the one singular, fixed, permanent, principal home where one intends to return, although she may not currently reside there," explains Yael Bromberg, an attorney who co-edited the book Youth Voting Rights: Civil Rights, the Twenty-Sixth Amendment, and the Fight for American Democracy on College Campuses. "In the case of a student who may not know where she might live after graduation, that determination of domicile is highly personal and an individualized assessment." In Montana, a U.S. citizen who is 18 or older and has been a state resident for at least 30 days is generally eligible to register to vote there. Last year, Montana's Republican-controlled legislature passed a new restriction for "temporary" residents in an "educational program." Under the revised state law, they could only register in a Montana county if they intend to make the county or the state their permanent home at the end of their program.
GOP state officials argue that restriction does not apply to students at colleges and universities in Montana. That interpretation, they claim in a court filing, "would render the word 'temporary' meaningless, because no one understands obtaining a two, four, or eight-year degree as a temporary endeavor." So far, Missoula County Judge Jason Marks is not buying that argument. In February, he found the restriction against student voters likely violates Montana's constitution.
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