"Caging" is the process of stopping certain voters from voting based upon some demographic attribute. Often, we find people caging the black vote - dropping voters from the rolls in Florida in 2000 and 2004 because their names were similar to a list of convicted felons from Texas, or sending letters to black voters and dropping them from the voting rolls if the letters come back.
This year, however, the voting block that's going to make a difference is 18-to-24-year-olds, who overwhelmingly support Obama. And the more likely voters in the block are college students, who often are registered on campus, rather than in their hometowns.
According to a
press release from Montgomery County, VA (home of Virginia Tech), students are risking a lot by registering to vote at school [emphasis added]:
The Code of Virginia states that a student must declare a legal residence in order to register. A legal residence can be either a student’s permanent address from home or their current college residence. By making Montgomery County your permanent residence, you have declared your independence from your parents and can no longer be claimed as a dependent on their income tax filings — check with your tax professional. If you have a scholarship attached to your former residence, you could lose this funding. And, if you change your registration to Montgomery County, Virginia Code requires you to change your driver’s license and car registration to your present address within 30 days.
There's only one problem - there doesn't seem to be any substantiation of this warning. Nobody has ever lost their dependency status, health insurance, scholarship or right to drive as a result of registering to vote.
The scare tactics have just begun. We have 60+ days to make sure that every American citizen with the right to vote is able to exercise that franchise. Keep your eyes open!
