Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Discouraging student voters at Virginia Tech

From Politico's The Arena:

"More than 5,600 people, mainly Virginia Tech students, are registered to vote at precinct E1 in Blacksburg of Montgomery County in Virginia. That number is nearly double what the state law allows for polling stations and the lack of an additional polling station is causing substantial delays. In addition, the polling place is 6.5 miles away from campus at a tiny church located off the main road. There is no street sign marking the turn off to the one lane road. There are 30 parking spots for the thousands of voters expected to turn up at precinct E1.

A few months ago in Montgomery County, the registrar of elections issued a statement warning college students that if they registered to vote at school, they could forfeit scholarships, lose health and carinsurance and negatively effect their parents' tax status. The registrar retracted the statement when it was disproved by the Internal Revenue Service, major media outlets, legal and voting rights experts and health insurance companies."

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