Disenfranchisement! Well not quite, but that's what some are saying the misinformation handed down to Virginia Tech students at a voter-registration drive late last month was effectively doing.
Local registrars from Virginia issued two releases during the drive led by supporters of Barack, warning students that if they register at school the need to be prepared to lose scholarships, coverage under their parent's health and car insurance, and they could no longer continue to claim themselves as dependents on tax forms — terrifying consequences for the typical college student. (Read more here.)
Between buying books, trying not to starve and covering the cost of tuition, few students in the battleground state of Virginia — or anywhere else for that matter — would find such sacrifices for registering worthwhile. The releases raised eyebrows, to say the least, and following complaints from the Barack Obama campaign and the American Civil Liberties Union, Virginia's state board of elections said it will be "modifying and clarifying" its guidelines.
But this isn't the first time such issues have come up, and Virginia is not the only state in which voter registration guidelines are unclear, according to the New York Times. The Times mentioned South Carolina, which requires students who register in the state to show "a present intention to remain in the community."
Despite the murky guidelines, students who are 18-years or older, have, as affirmed by the United States Supreme Court, the explicit right to register at their selective colleges.
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