College students have more to consider than whether they will vote or who they will vote for ahead of the midterm elections. They have to make sure they are registered to vote in the right place, avoid sketchy websites asking for personal information, and correctly fill out and submit mail-in ballots.
Penn State Votes is a campus resource that assists students with the voting process, including issues they might face when they try to vote. They encourage students to have a voting plan and to use official election websites to protect personal information so their votes count.
Use official election websites
Lisa Kerchinski is the assistant director in Student Leadership and Involvement at Penn State and the coordinator of Penn State Votes. She said this year one issue they are trying to help students avoid happened in the 2024 presidential election, when some outside groups came to campus to register students to vote. The groups sometimes misused students’ personal information.
“There were some issues with some of that identification that people were sharing, being used for nefarious purposes,” Kerchinski said.
Kerchinski said some students who thought they had registered to vote later found out they were not and reached out to the Penn State Votes office.
“We're just encouraging people to make informed decisions with where they're sharing their data and making sure that it's with the correct entities,” Kerchinski said.
Where to register and vote
Figuring out where to vote can also get complicated for college students, because many move frequently. Students can register to vote at their prior home address if their parent or guardian still lives there or at their college address. But they can only vote once in each election.
Kerchinski said that if students move during college, they need to update their registration and double-check their polling place. Even if students do not move, they should look up their polling place since they can change.
“There's just a lot of moving parts. And I think that awareness of where I live or where I want to vote are connected, and, you know, I have to do something to make sure that those align with what I want to do,” Kerchinski said.
Voting by mail-in ballot
A student voting by mail-in ballot needs to request it before the deadline and to the address they’ll be at when it will arrive, then they need to fill it out and return it on time. In Pennsylvania and 34 other states, ballots must be received at the election office by Election Day to be counted. Fifteen states will accept ballots postmarked by Election Day that arrive within a specific number of days.
There are several drop boxes available in Centre County where students can deposit their mail-in ballots, including one outside the Pollock Avenue entrance to the HUB-Robeson Center on Penn State's University Park campus. Kerchinski warns students that only Centre County ballots can be deposited in the Centre County drop boxes.
Making a voting plan
Kerchinski said the main challenge is making sure everyone knows what to do before Election Day arrives. Instead of just asking students if they are registered, she encouraged students to think about their plan for actually casting a ballot.
“I think sometimes saying, ‘Are you registered to vote?’ isn't necessarily the question that we should be asking people,” Kerchinski said. “It should be, you know, more along the lines of, ‘What are your plans for voting? Do you have a voting plan?’”