Staff Editorial | Legislations encourage dialogue about student participation in local elections

Vassar students who vote in local elections have repeatedly been presented with logistical obstacles. The campus is split between two election wards, each with its own polling center. This is problematic for Vassar students because, although we are spread out over a modestly large area, we are connected in many less tangible ways; the designation of two polling places for a community that considers itself unified can be confusing for students, many of whom are new to voting or lack transportation to their assigned ward.

During this year's election, the Vassar campus's division into two separate wards became a pressing issue. Poll workers mistakenly turned away students with 124, Raymond Avenue addresses from the Town Hall voting location, telling them to vote at Arthur S. May Elementary School. Even those responsible for administering voting operations were confused by the protocol for our divided campus. Their uncertainty discouraged students who sought only to express themselves through a democratic electoral process. The existence of separate wards for a unified campus serves only to divide and confuse us. If students make the personal choice to cast their votes in Poughkeepsie, their electoral process must be free from unnecessary and bureaucratic impediments.

The Editorial Board of the Miscellany believes that this is an important time to consider this issue, as change is feasible in the near future. Prior to next year's elections, the Dutchess County Legislature will redraw the boundaries of the voting wards. We strongly encourage the Legislature to consider the confusion that two separate voting wards presents to the Vassar community.

Although we at the Miscellany do agree that Vassar should be placed into a single ward with one polling location, we are uncertain where exactly this should be. The question of polling places for institutions of higher education has been recently complicated by proposed legislation in the New York State Senate.

In 2010, State Senator Suzi Oppenheimer introduced a bill (labeled S1851-2011) that would put a polling place on any university or college campus with 300 or more registered voters. Although it was passed in the Senate, it seems to have stalled on the floor of the State Assembly. Despite this result, the bill raises an interesting question: Should Vassar, along with other New York colleges and universities, have exclusive on-campus polling locations?

On the one hand, a polling place on college and university campuses would increase voter turnout. Many more Vassar students would vote if they could drop off a ballot in Main on their way to class. However, some of us at the Miscellany are afraid that this would cause students to vote in local elections because of the ease of the electoral process, rather than genuine political sentiments. If an on-campus polling location became a venue for casual voting along party lines, Vassar students could become a powerful but relatively ignorant demographic within the local community.

A polling place on campus might also further isolate Vassar students from the greater Poughkeepsie community. Although the two polling places aren't very far away, it is meaningful that they are located off-campus. In our most recent Editorial discussion, many on the Editorial Board felt that we must venture into Dutchess County in order to alter its politics, although others disagreed and argued that the benefits of an on-campus polling location outweigh the potential cons.

For other New York universities, having an on-campus polling location may carry greater significance. Unlike Vassar, many of these institutions boast greater populations of local students, a configuration that would evade several of the Vassar-specific critiques we have listed above. Furthermore, we consider the students at colleges and universities who must travel significant distances, some unreachable by foot, to cast their vote in local elections.

Ultimately, the Editorial Board urges the Dutchess County Legislature to unite our campus and the New York State Legislature to renew its conversation about on-campus polling locations.

—The Staff Editorial represents the opinion of at least two thirds of the 21-member Miscellany News Editorial Board.