Rogers' Law could affect students
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James Harrison
Are you ready to vote?
Don’t worry. This isn’t part of the mountain of editorials and columns begging you to go out and register to vote — although you should be registered, and those exhortations are coming.
No, this is about how few people acknowledge that, for many students, it actually takes a little more than simply being registered and having a desire to vote. A quirk of Michigan law means that many students who thought they were on top of things could find themselves on the outside looking in come election day.
Michigan currently has a law on the books requiring a voter’s registration to be tied to the address on his or her driver’s license. When you update your legal address on your driver’s license, your voter’s registration is updated and vice versa. It’s colloquially known as Rogers’ Law, after state congressman Mike Rogers, R-Brighton, a major proponent of the measure.
Rogers’ Law has a major impact on students simply because so few of us actually update our legal address on our driver’s license to accurately reflect where we’re currently residing. In many ways, a student is a four- or five-year nomad, shuffling between multiple addresses, but not staying in any one long enough to justify the long wait and paperwork that awaits an address change at the Secretary of State offices.
Even though I’ve lived at the same address for a couple of years now, I haven’t bothered to update my address, just because I keep wondering exactly how long I’ll be staying there, even as I keep renewing my lease.
All of which brings me to my point: The absentee ballot. I’m sure there are quite a few students who’ll need one who don’t realize the time has already come to request one.
I came to this conclusion after this past weekend, when I went to visit my family in my hometown and found my self-described “idiot” of a sister. She didn’t realize she needed an absentee ballot. After I had announced I needed to go to the city clerk’s office to grab an application for an absentee ballot, my sister suddenly perked up. It had been a while since she had voted — while she has many virtues, political aptitude is not one of them — and she wasn’t even sure if she was registered.
Panic gripped her as she envisioned large piles of paperwork to fill out and possibly even some form of government interrogation. As an experienced absentee voter, I did my best to quell her fears.
I knew it would be a simple matter of finding the city clerk’s office and filling out some paperwork, but she was having none of it. It was fairly amusing. Once we actually reached the clerk’s office and grabbed two applications for ballots, I figured that she’d calm down.
How little I know her, it seems.
The form simply asks for your birthday, name, current legal address, a temporary address to send the ballot to if needed, the dates you’ll be at the temporary address, a reason for the ballot request and a check box for which ballot — primary, general election or both — you’ll be needing.
I wouldn’t have believed a person could think there were right or wrong answers to this form, but there was my loving sister, begging to look at my form and inundating me with requests for the answers.
That was problem enough, but then came the check boxes for reasons for the ballot request.
This section enchanted her. While I calmly looked for the box stating that I would not be in the polling area the entirety of election day, my sister saw it as an opportunity to impress some poor government worker.
I tried to point out the box she should check, but I found that it took some cajoling to get her to not check the box indicating that she could not attend for religious reasons. Now, I’m sure she was playing around with me a bit. It still makes me wonder how she could find a government form so interesting.
So let this rambling story be a reminder to those other nomadic students that it’s time to get your requests in, if you haven’t already. I highly doubt your trip will be quite as entertaining as mine, but it’s still something you need to do.
You have until the Nov. 1, to request an absentee ballot. If you’ve already requested one, they will be mailed Monday.
As a final note, to my sister: Just remember, you’re the one who told me to call you an idiot.
James Harrison is the State News opinion writer. Reach him at harri310@msu.edu.
Commentary
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Ben
(09/23/08 7:48pm)Report
Sec. 315.
MCLA 257.315
(1) An operator or chauffeur who changes his or her residence before the expiration of a license granted under this chapter shall immediately notify the secretary of state of his or her new residence address.
James Harrison and all the rest of those scoff-laws probably shouldn’t be allowed to vote anyway. I suppose it just helps McCain win Michigan so I guess I’m for it.
Rogers hates students
(09/23/08 8:25pm)Report
October 5th, 2002 issue of the Detroit Free Press reported that Rogers’ Law caused East Lansing voter registration to drop 11% (up to 13.6% in Ann Arbor). That’s total city registration.
Rogers only won his fist election by 111 votes, so remember on election day that Rogers doesn’t care about the students in his district.
Also, despite the rumors that College Republicans like to spread, you CANNOT be kicked off your parents health insurance for registering in East Lansing. Insurance is based on relationships, and most insurance covers students through age 25 if they are attending college.
Juan
(09/23/08 10:56pm)Report
Right on, Ben. The fact that folks don’t like the law, or can’t find themselves a fixed residence for any period of time, is not something that the statute treats as an exception to its requirements.
Papa Smurf
(09/23/08 11:40pm)Report
Brainy Smurf so smart, he forgot that Michigan Secretary of State ® allows persons to change address by mail.
http://www.michigan.gov/sos/0,1607,7-127—25412—,00.html
Yes, would be easier online. That will happen right after State News, ASMSU, and UAB allow student fee refunds online. And H*ll freezes over.
GPM
(09/23/08 11:54pm)Report
Juan and Ben,
Why do you hate America?
Jason Van Dyke
(09/24/08 12:29am)Report
I agree with Papa Smurf. The State of Texas allows a person to submit an address change online for a very small fee. No forms to fill out. A new temporary license is immediately available for you to print. Your new license arrives by mail within two weeks. All of this without having to wait among the great onslaught of the unwashed in the monument to government inefficiency which is the DMV.
The concept of Roger’s Law I think is a good one. The State of Michigan just ought to make compliance easier. Its been done for over a year here in Texas and, to the best of my knowledge, there have been no complaints of identity theft linked to the system.
Joe
(09/24/08 8:37am)Report
I just went to the DMV by the “hampster cage” on Monday. I had to wait only 5 minutes and my chage of address (and voter registration) took 2 minutes. All I had to do was sign a couple times after I told the attendant my new address. No paperwork invovled at all. The DMV is not as bad as it once was because Terri Lynn Land has put a lot of other services online.
Zeke
(09/24/08 11:21am)Report
Are people seriously whining that they have to fill out a form to change their address in order to take part in the most important civic power they can wield? Really?
“Rogers only won his fist election by 111 votes, so remember on election day that Rogers doesn’t care about the students in his district.”
Wow. Incredibly flawed logic. If you’re going to vote in EL and not in Brighton, you’re not in his district anymore, are you? If anything, it shows more committment to Brighton by forcing you to vote in Brighton, on matters that affect Brighton, if that’s where your address is. If you’re really so interested in voting for EL laws and ordinances, making decisions and enacting laws that will affect permamnent residents of East Lansing LONG after you’ve left the university, is it really so hard to take the 10-minute step of registering one’s address?
Matthew
(09/24/08 11:59am)Report
Zeke: Rogers is from Brighton, but his district encompasses East Lansing.
The true controversy surrounding Rogers’ Law was its timing. It went into effect just before the election (the one where he was just barely re-elected). Most students didn’t know of the change and were litterally turned away at the polls. While the net effect of the law might have been laudable, the intention was mere disenfranchisement.
The “battle” between college students and the residents of the city that hosts the university is epic and long-standing. With the exception of Ann Arbor (and, to a lesser degree, GVSU), these groups just don’t seem to get along. I encourage all college students to change their addresses to their student housing so their voices can be heard locally. Either way, I think these attempts to silence student voices (at least in the cities where they live) is a rather nasty and unfair way for the residents to cope with the relationship. Everyone would be happier if residents and students worked together to address common issues rather than creating resentment with petty power struggles.
Cranky Old Grandpa Smurf
(09/24/08 12:11pm)Report
What’s with you young whipper-snappers? Quit whining and shut your smurfing smurf-hole! Why back in my day we used to walk to the SOS office in ten inches of snow, which is a lot of snow if your smurf, tell ‘em where we were living, sign a couple times.
Don’t feel like smurfing it out to the nearst SOS office? Use the mail-in form! Fill-in you name, new address, driver’s license number, sign, mail out and you’re done. Either way, suck it up and be a smurf!
Papa Smurf
(09/24/08 12:34pm)Report
Use the mail-in form!
—
http://www.michigan.gov/sos/0,1607,7-127—25412—,00.html
Smurf on and get Smurf!
Bart
(09/24/08 12:35pm)Report
Everyone would be happier if residents and students worked together to address common issues rather than creating resentment with petty power struggles.
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Yes — students should be allowed to urinate anywhere, anytime.
TheSneakyElephant
(09/24/08 6:41pm)Report
I’m sorry the law doesn’t account for the nomadic nature of the roaming tribes of the wild frontier. But, the law has a purpose and it’s purpose is to prevent voter fraud. Roger’s Law makes sure that nobody makes up bogus addresses so they can vote. If you wanna vote in EL, you need to REGISTER in EL which means making your PERMANENT ADDRESS in EL and thereby your license.
YouVote
(09/25/08 9:29am)Report
An additional quirk to Michigan electoral law: If a person is registering for the first time and has never voted before, this person must make an IN PERSON appearance at the City Clerk’s office (in the city the person is registered) to be able to vote absentee. This can be done up to 2pm on the Saturday prior to the election. Visit www.youvote.msu.edu for more info.