Today, a typical American man sits at his desk in his office and contemplates which candidate will receive his vote on Nov. 4. He knows that this will be a very important election in the midst of a financial crisis, so he must weigh his options carefully. He might even be wondering how to get to the polls on Election Day, but his electoral worries do not extend much further than this. This man is a registered voter.
At another desk far away, a college student sits surrounded by mountains of homework and the threat of midterms. He is also contemplating which candidate he will vote for on Election Day. In addition, he is aware of the fact that this election could be detrimental to the future of our nation and especially wants the voice of his generation to be heard. But this young man has far greater worries than our friend in his office. He is not a registered voter — and he is from New Hampshire.
The labyrinthine processes and complicated forms of voter registration had never really entered my thoughts until I, myself, had to register to vote. And I must say I had it fairly easy. I'm from Washington: the land of no polls. Sure, I had to send in my voter registration form twice before they had me in the system, but it was very simple to find this form online and send it in. Because we only have absentee ballots, I didn't even have to request one; I simply had to change my address with a very easy click of a button. My friend from New Hampshire will not be this lucky.
I met this student from New Hampshire during a "dorm storm" with the Tufts Democrats on Tuesday evening. We began to assist him with his voter registration through www.voteforchange.com when we discovered that people from New Hampshire cannot simply print out their voter registration forms.
Students in this situation living at Tufts must call their city clerk to request that a voter registration form be mailed to them. Then, they must also request an absentee ballot which amazingly enough can be downloaded online, but they can only find this after searching through a myriad of voting literature.
Doesn't this seem like a ridiculously superfluous process, especially when your homework stacks are growing by the minute? Of course, but this particular New Hampshire voter knows how important his vote will be, so he will diligently fill out each and every form before the deadline. Will others do the same?
Then there is a cornucopia of other problems that could potentially occur. Did you switch that day's date with your birthdate? Did you remember to sign? Will it arrive before the deadline? Will it even arrive? Was your voter registration form mailed to the proper place? How about your absentee ballot? (You know, sometimes these are different addresses.) How on earth can you possibly control all of this? Fortunately, you can view your registration status online at your secretary of state's Web site — but the election is only five weeks away! That doesn't leave you very much time to successfully navigate your way through this rigmarole. Do it now!
This issue seems to raise a rather serious matter: In the most powerful democracy in the world, why is voter registration so difficult? If you can't register, you can't vote; if you can't vote, you can't effectively participate in a democratic society. Your voice can't be heard. You can't make a difference. You can't vote for change. According to the very definition of democracy, you should be encouraged to vote. It should be made easy for you.
Foreign countries scoff at our embarrassingly low voter turnout. Perhaps they should be pointing fingers at our voter registration process rather than other factors.
In the United Kingdom, for example, where the voter turnout is much higher than in the United States, the government sends every household a voter registration form every year to be filled out by new eligible voters. A voter may register to vote two full years before being eligible and will even receive a birthday card on his or her 18th birthday, detailing the voting process. No wonder more of them vote.
Voter registration seems to be especially discriminatory to a specific group of people: us. As college students, most of us have just entered the age of eligibility and upon entering college, many students are not registered. Also, here at Tufts, just like at other colleges, a very large number of students do not actually live in the area and must vote by absentee, meaning yet another form.
Maybe our generation isn't quite as apathetic as it may seem. Maybe we do try to vote, but we can't seem to get beyond the registration process. But certainly we will never be able to change the voter registration process unless we vote.
College students, welcome to America — land of the free and home of the unnecessarily complex. I strongly encourage you to work your way through the process and cast a ballot. This is a very important election and every vote counts, including yours; but there will be no vote to count unless you register. Register today.
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Chelsea Ongaro is a freshman who has not yet declared a major.
