Registration & Voting Information for College Students

Registration and Voting Information for College Students
College students and other first time voters may have questions about how to register and where to vote in Virginia.  The following information is specific to college students and explains residency requirements for voter registration and special absentee privileges for certain students.

How do I register to vote in Virginia?
A college student registers to vote in Virginia the same as any other applicant: every prospective voter must submit a voter registration application.  Remember, you must update your voter registration information whenever you change your residence.

Every voter in Virginia must submit their residential address when registering to vote.  (A mailbox cannot serve as a residential address.)  If you are unable to receive mail at your address, you must also submit a local mailing address.  A dorm or college address can be an acceptable residential address and does not disqualify you from voting.

For more information, go here.

What is my residence?
A prospective voter must be a resident of the precinct where he seeks to register. In order to establish "residency," a prospective voter must have a physical location where they intend to stay for an unlimited time.

The applicant must determine and declare their residence and may change their intent at any time.   To assist applicants in determining their legal residence, the State Board of Elections has developed a self-guided questionnaire.  The questionnaire contains questions intended to assist applicants as they determine where their legal residence is.  The questionnaire is not required in order to register to vote.  The applicant may wish to retain a copy of the questionnaire for their files.

For more information, go here.

How do I vote?
A college student votes in the same manner as any other registered voter: you may vote in person on election day or, if eligible, by absentee.

Students who will be absent from the locality where they are registered to vote because they attend school in another locality are eligible to vote absentee. For example, a student registered to vote in Charlottesville but attending school in Blacksburg may vote absentee in Charlottesville.  However, a student registered to vote in Charlottesville and attending school in Charlottesville could not vote by absentee.  For more information about absentee voting, go here.

For more information, go here.

Impact on Other Areas
Legal residence for voter registration purposes may or may not be the same as legal residence for census, driver’s license, federal and state income tax, state vehicle tax, tuition, or financial aid purposes.  The State Board of Elections and local election officials are not trained in these complex areas.  You should consult appropriate advisors regarding these issues.

Additional Material
The following information is offered as background and explanation for the above information regarding voter registration and voting by college students in Virginia.

How do I register to vote?
College students in Virginia are treated the same as any other applicant who registers to vote.1  The fact that an individual is a student is and should be treated as a “neutral factor.”

The Constitution of Virginia states the qualifications of all voters as follows

• Shall be a citizen of the United States.
• Shall be eighteen years of age by the next general election.
• Shall be a resident of the Commonwealth and precinct where the voter votes.  Residence requires both domicile and place of abode.
• Shall be registered to vote.
• Must not have been convicted of a felony or must have had his or her rights restored by the Governor or other appropriate authority.
• Must not have been adjudicated to be mentally incompetent or must have had his or her competency reestablished.

Every applicant for registration must submit their residential address.  (See Code of Virginia, § 24.2-418.)  The residential address must contain enough information to assign the voter to the proper precinct, election districts, and locality.

Voters must be able to receive official notices from their registrar via the United States Postal Service.  (See Code of Virginia, § 24.2-114.)  The State Board of Elections recognizes that mail cannot be delivered to all residential addresses.  (This occurs most often in rural areas but can also occur with dormitories.)  Therefore, voters who cannot receive mail at their residential address must submit 1) a residential address and 2) a local mailing address on their application. 

What is my residence?
Residency requires both a “place of abode” and “domicile.”  A place of abode requires the person’s physical presence in the precinct and locality.  To establish “domicile”, a person must live in a particular locality with the intent to remain there for an unlimited time. Sachs v. Horan, 252 Va. 247 (1996). Thus, no person can have more than one domicile or vote in more than one locality at the same time.

The burden of proving domicile rests with the person asserting it.  Each eligible person must, however, have some place that they can vote, if they wish to be able to vote.  For example, homeless may register by using the site "where they lay their head at night".

While determination of legal residence is the responsibility of applicants, registrars in Virginia have responsibility for determining if applicants are eligible to vote in their localities.  A registrar may request (but not require) additional information to assist in the determination of a voter’s eligibility.3  Questions asked of applicants are intended to help applicants determine where is the appropriate place for them to register to vote.  Under Virginia Code § 24.2-101, registrars may give consideration to at least the following factors in determining domicile:

1. A person's "expressed intent;"
2. A person’s "conduct;” and
3. A person’s “all attendant circumstances", including, but not limited to:

• financial independence
• business pursuits
• employment
• income sources
• residence for income tax purposes
• marital status and children
• residence of parents
• leaseholds and ownership of real property
• where automobiles and other personal property are registered and taxed.

Domicile, as defined, cannot be determined solely based on one factor but consideration may be given to an assortment of factors which may illustrate the person’s true domicile.  The Virginia Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled that to establish domicile, a person must live in the particular locality with the intention to remain there for an unlimited time.4  Further, an opinion of the Attorney General of Virginia states:

A person’s domicile is essentially a matter of subjective intent known only to that person.  While others may consider a person’s actions as evidence of the person’s domiciliary intent, it is important to recognize that the actions alone do not establish domicile… Domiciliary intent is a factual matter to be determined on a case-by-case basis by considering and weighing all relevant facts.5

The State Board of Elections therefore issued policies, procedures, and a questionnaire for when and how reasonable inquiries may be made by a registrar to ensure that all similarly situated applicants for voter registration are treated in a uniform and equitable manner.  (Revisions to the questionnaire were considered by the State Board on January 17, 2007 but were not adopted.)

Virginia does not require a voter to have lived in Virginia for a specified time period before registering to vote.  The requirement for a voter to reside in Virginia for a specified duration was removed from the Constitution of Virginia in 1976.  Virginia does require prospective voters to submit voter registration applications no later than 29 days before a primary or general election.  (See Code of Virginia, § 24.2-416.)

How do I vote?
College students vote in the same manner as any other registered voter.  Section 24.2-700 of the Code of Virginia permits qualifying students to vote by absentee:

§ 24.2-700. Persons entitled to vote by absentee ballot.
The following registered voters may vote by absentee ballot in accordance with the provisions of this chapter in any election in which they are qualified to vote: …

3. Any student attending a school or institution of learning, or his spouse, who will be absent on the day of election from the county or city in which he is entitled to vote; …

In order to vote by absentee, the applicant must complete a timely absentee ballot application and indicate the name and address of their school, which must be outside of the county or city where they are registered to vote.  (See § 24.2-701.)

1 See 72-73 Op. Att’y. Gen 168.

2 Kegley v. Johnson, 207 Va. 54, 57, 147 S.E.2d 735 (1966).

3 See 1995 Op. Att’y Gen 27; 1971-1972 Op. Va. Att'y Gen. 165, 166; id. at 199, 200.; see also Auerbach v. Rettaliata, 765 F.2d 350, 354 (2d Cir. 1985) (subjecting students as members of transient class to more searching inquiry to determine voter eligibility does not violate Equal Protection Clause of U.S. Constitution if students are not denied reasonable opportunity to establish residency).

4 See Sachs v. Horan, 252 Va 247, 475 S.E.2d 276 (1996); Kegley v. Johnson, 207 Va. 54, 57, 147 S.E.2d 735, 737 (1966), State-Planters Bank & Trust Co. v. Commonwealth, 174 Va. 289, 295, 6 S.E.2d 629, 641 (1940).

5 See 1995 Op. Atty. Gen. Va. 270.