Home is where the vote is

Across America, cities are discouraging or prohibiting students from voting in their university towns. Absentee voting is student voting, they're trying to tell us. \nBut when we spend nine months out of the year in our college town, where do we cast our vote (not to mention hang our hats)?\nThis is the town that affects you. This is where you live nine months out of the year, or possibly year-round. This is where you work. This is where you get arrested.\nStudents at the College of William and Mary in Virginia are currently fighting to register to vote in their college town. At IU, we have the right to register in Bloomington, temporary residence or not. \nBut an Indiana Daily Student article from Monday reported that of 97,000 registered voters in Monroe County, only 30,000 are active. Though this is partially because of unpurged voter rolls, the number of active voters is still too low.\nGet it together, IU. Voting is terribly important; we all know this. But responsible voting is just as important. \n"Local politicians are very unsure about students," said Michael O'Loughlin, a political science professor at Salisbury University in Maryland in an Aug. 28 Associated Press article. "They enjoy having students pay (sales) taxes and contribute to the economy, but they are wary of how students could influence politics at a local level."\nThe only way to eradicate doubt is to rise above it. If we're going to be vote where we live, we need to be good houseguests. We should appreciate our ability to vote in Bloomington -- as long as we are responsible about it.