FAQs for Student Voters

MY HOME IS IN ANOTHER STATE OR ANOTHER PART OF PENNSYLVANIA. WHERE SHOULD I VOTE?

You may register to vote in your home state or county, and travel home to vote on eection day, or request an absentee ballot and vote in your home district by mail. But you may also register to vote here in Philadelphia, from the address where you live while you are in college. Any U.S. citizen who will be 18 on election day and will have lived in Philadelphia for 30 days prior to an election may register to vote here, and students are legally allowed to vote where they attend college.

HOW CAN I REGISTER TO VOTE IN MY HOME STATE?

Go to www.justvote.org. Here you can find information on registering in any state, and on requesting absentee ballots from any state.

HOW CAN I VOTE BY ABSENTEE BALLOT?

If you want to vote in your home county or state in the November 2004 election, check now with your local board of elections to see how you can request an absentee ballot. You can find your local board of elections phone number and address through www.justvote.org. You must be registered before you can request an absentee ballot.

I’M NOT SURE IF I AM REGISTERED TO VOTE OR NOT. WHAT SHOULD I DO?

If you are not sure whether or not you are already registered to vote, you can call the board of elections in the county where you think you are registered. You can find any local board of elections phone number and address through www.justvote.org. You can also just go ahead and register here in Philadelphia. Your new registration should cancel out your old registration.

DOES IT MATTER WHAT PARTY AFFILIATION I CHECK?

Pennsylvania is a closed primary state. That means only registered members of a party can vote in that party’s primary. You can also help to strengthen a party by joining it, but some voters prefer to be unaffiliated.

WHAT HAPPENS AFTER I COMPLETE A PENNSYLVANIA REGISTRATION FORM?

You are not registered until your application has been received and processed by your county voter registration office. If accepted, the county voter registration office will send to you, via nonforwardable mail, a Voter Identification Card.

If you do not receive a Voter Identification Card within 14 days of the date when you submit this application, contact your county registration office. Your Voter Identification Card will tell you what your Ward and Division are. Keep this in your wallet – it will help you find your polling place, and can be helpful identification when you go to vote.

AFTER I REGISTER, WHERE DO I VOTE?

You need to know your Ward and Division in order to find out where your polling place is. If you have lost your Voter Identification Card, call the Board of Elections, and they will give you this information. Polling places are published in the city newspapers before the election, and you can also find them from the Committee of Seventy’s Web site, www.seventy.org.

WHAT KIND OF I.D. DO I NEED TO VOTE?

If you are voting in a new location for the first time, you need to take ID. You can use your Voter Identification Card, your Student ID, your Driver’s License or your Passport. For other acceptable forms of ID see www.dos.state.pa.us.

Note: You must register by Oct. 4 to vote on Nov. 2. The polls are open 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Cynthia Baughman can be reached at Cynthia.baughman@temple.edu Cynthia.baughman@temple.edu.