Vote Your Voice

An article in The Washington Post this week talks about several states looking to ban college students from voting in the towns where their colleges are located.  Arguments include that students are naive and foolish, and that they are diluting the votes of taxpayers within those cities.  However, students would be allowed to vote in local elections of their home towns.

This argument seems a bit off to me.  If college students are so foolish and naive, shouldn't they not be allowed to vote anywhere.  No matter where they vote, they would still be diluting taxpayers votes.  Not to mention the fact that not all college students aren't the same.  Some students are coming back to college and most have to work in addition to attending school, which would make them taxpayers as well.  Additionally, just because students are going to college doesn't mean they are automatically as liberal as proponents of these reforms claim.  The fact that these students are in college also makes them a lot less clueless than a portion of the population, who are not college educated.

I agree that, yes, not all college students are the brightest, and yes we can be a bit foolish at times.  But, we are just young adults and we are going through the learning process of growing up.

This doesn't mean however, that we should be excluded from voting in our college towns or any town for that matter.  The law and federal policy have given us the right to vote at age 18, and this right should be upheld, just as it would be for any voting adult.