Should Out-of-State Students Caucus in Iowa?

re: Should Out-of-State Students Caucus in Iowa?

Boomdog — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 22:24:43 GMT

Great piece, Andrew. I totally agree. Not sure why this is getting blown out of proportion by the anti-Obama forces, particularly when, as you write, the secretary of state's office encourages it.

What really gets me is the idea that these students shouldn't vote. Don't we WANT our youth to vote? Perhaps the other candidates should spend more time trying to attract young voters rather than spend their time bashing other candidates.

re: Should Out-of-State Students Caucus in Iowa?

pfotopfad — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 14:27:02 GMT

Students can try to vote in both our Caucus and then go back to Illinios/Minnesota, Missouri/North Dakota on "super Tuesday" to vote again. This can happen since most states already have their voting sign in sheet printed off with their registered voters. In Iowa you can register to vote here on the night of the Caucus. Do states compare notes, doubtful!

Thats the issue

re: Should Out-of-State Students Caucus in Iowa?

BenMurphyNYC — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 16:06:21 GMT

'If you are not from Iowa" is the important text. To register to vote in Iowa you need to be 17 (if 18 by November 4, 2008) and have an Iowa ID card. The proof of residency for the ID card can be the act of registering to vote and declared address determines where you vote. All of the rules are on Iowa's DMV and Iowa's Secretary of State web page.

This is the reason recruiting out-of-state students is a problem. A little research goes a long way Princeton.

re: Should Out-of-State Students Caucus in Iowa?

Andrew Romano — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 16:36:51 GMT

To BenMurphyNYC: I'm not sure I understand what you're saying here. According to the Iowa Secretary of State's website, out-of-state students need the following to register:

* Date of birth (month, day, year)

* Sex (female or male)

* Full name (same as it appears on your ID)

* Address where you live

* Mailing address, if different from where you live

* Signature and the current date

* Iowa Driver's License number or non-operator ID number or if you do not have a Driver's License #, the last four digits of your Social Security # TIP: If your driver's license is from another state, use the last 4 digits of your SS#.

* the 2 boxes at top declaring you are a U.S. Citizen and you will be 18 years old on election day must be checked

* Description of location of residence (only if you have no street address)

* Previous voter registration information

Notice that TIP. "If your driver's license is from another state, use the last 4 digits of your SS#." No Iowa ID card needed; just a Social Security number.

Am I missing something?

re: Should Out-of-State Students Caucus in Iowa?

pdmack — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 18:14:24 GMT

Good insight, Andrew. As a "townie" who lives in and Iowa college town, I can tell you Yepsen's rhetoric is not going over very well here. Many of my neighbors are students -- if I do not see them on caucus night, at least I will know whom to blame.

I would also point out the choice these students have to make. Either they come back to Iowa to caucus during vacation or they leave Iowa to vote during the school year. I think it makes more sense for students to "miss" vacation than to miss school.

re: Should Out-of-State Students Caucus in Iowa?

PatriotForObama — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 18:17:26 GMT

State of Iowa rules: http://www.sos.state.ia.us/elections/VoterInformation/CollegeStudents.html#3

re: Should Out-of-State Students Caucus in Iowa?

BenMurphyNYC — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 19:37:10 GMT

Sorry I was trying to be brief in the comment section, not critical. You are completely correct about the out-of-state students studying in Iowa, all of which should participate in the caucus.

My concern, which I did not make clear in the previous post, is non-Iowan students studying at schools in Illinois could easily cross into Iowa (having never lived there) and caucus, provided that they had registered 10 days in advance. I think Yepsen's quip about Illinois' history of voter fraud was intended to warn off those voters in Illinois who have no history with the State of Iowa, either as residents or students.

This is the second piece I have read on MSNBC.com you have written, I enjoyed both.

re: Should Out-of-State Students Caucus in Iowa?

mysistagirl — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 20:54:37 GMT

Let's just cut to the chase and go straight to the Iowa caucusing rules, shall we? After all, Iowans put these rules in place via their elected officials, so it's better to consult their bylaws as opposed to some out of state politicans seeking to "surpress" the vote for political gain. Here is a link to the rules:

http://www.sos.state.ia.us/elections/voterreg/collegestudentsvote.html

These rules clearly state the following:

Non-Iowa Resident Attending College IN Iowa

If you are from another state (i.e. Illinois) and are attending college in Iowa (i.e. Iowa State University), you may register to vote in:

your Iowa college town or

your home state (hometown) and vote absentee

(You cannot register to vote in both locations)

Your decision of where to register to vote will determine which candidates and what issues appear on your ballot.

*******************

And there is NOTHING problematic or shady about it. Obama put a line in his brochure saying to the students "if you live out of state and attend college in Iowa, you CAN(not must) come back to caucus. This is nothing more than what the rules say and he's not coercing anyone to do it. The rules say it's THEIR DECISION, and Obama simply has asked for their vote in Iowa. Biden, Clinton, Dodd, et al seem to want to surpress the vote by taking that decision away from college students and REQUIRING that they be barred from caucusing in their college town. That's ridiculous and THAT is what is problematic and shady.

Instead of this feeble attempt at surpressing this demographic's vote in Iowa, they should have built up their own support base among young college students so they could encourage these students to vote in Iowa in accordance with the bylaws, instead of resorting to republican gimmickry of surpressing the votes they see as likely to go to their competition.

During the last two presidential elections, there was no question that Republicans bent over backwards to surpress certain votes and the Democrats screamed bloody murder and painted themselves as the champions of voting rights. Well, when it happens again during the 2008 election they will not be able to complain about it because they are now behaving like the flip side of the same coin, and Republicans can just hurl this nonsense right back at them and rightfully so!

Surpressing the vote is lowdown trickery and it stinks from either side of the political playing field. period!

re: Should Out-of-State Students Caucus in Iowa?

username100 — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 05:24:53 GMT

It doesn't make sense for a veteran journalist like Yepsen to contradict himself like he is doing in this case;admitting other candidates do it but Obama shouldn't do it openly and aggressively.

My suspicion is he wants his paper to endorse Hillary as there has been a lot of lobbying from her campaign. Since these days there is no momentum nor good news in camp Hillary to justify an endorsement he has to manufacture a non exsitent cotroversy about her closest rival. Sometimes these papers come up with ridiculous explanations of why they endorsed a candidate - 2 days ago some Iowa news paper endorsed Hillary. One of the reasons they gave was the "leadership" she showed during the hostage situation in New Hampshire. If you didn't follow the news and just read this paper you would think Hillary performed some special command mission and came out with the hostages. What she really did was talked to reporters calmly and once the situation was over talked to the hostages. Now, which of the candidates can't or won't do the same thing she did? It sounds what she did was pretty standard. But since they can't come up with a really distinguishing reason they give us some silly reason why they did or did not endorse a candidate.

re: Should Out-of-State Students Caucus in Iowa?

username100 — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 05:29:40 GMT

sorry, I meant "commando mission"

re: Should Out-of-State Students Caucus in Iowa?

BenMurphyNYC — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 16:23:31 GMT

username100 - good guess. the paper endorsed.