As American citizens across the country consider who to cast their ballots for, college students grapple with the implications of not only who to vote for but also where to vote. At universities like WashU, where 90% of students are not from Missouri, that added consideration is a personal decision that varies depending on political position, ballot issues, and connection to home states. 

Some may assume that progressive voters from blue states would switch their registration in order to have a greater impact in the solidly Republican Missouri, however, this is not the case for many students. Progressive voters at WashU from regions across the country greatly vary in their plans to vote in their home states or not and why. 

Connection to home state, community, and local politics

For second-year graduate student, Asha Marie Larson-Baldwin, choosing to keep her voter registration in her home state of South Carolina was a decision made partially due to her desire to maintain some sort of connection to home.

“Up until very recently, I was thinking about transferring, so I wanted to keep as much of my life in South Carolina as possible, just in case I needed to move or something like that,” Larson-Baldwin said. 

For many out-of-state voters, it may be more practical, as well as comforting, to register in their home states. The familiarity of the process for returning voters is an added ease as well. 

“I already know how South Carolina works with absentee voting, and I like to vote in local elections as well because I know who my representatives are in South Carolina,” Larson-Baldwin said. “That means I still get to feel connected to my community back home, and also, I just feel like my vote matters a lot locally there.” 

Junior Lulu Ingham also felt inclined to register in her home state of Florida due to her investment in community and local politics. 

“I kept my voter registration in Florida just because I feel like I know more about the local issues there,” Ingham said. “I personally am voting blue,  so if I was from a blue state, I would have changed to be registered in Missouri, but since both Florida and Missouri are red, I decided to switch and stay in Florida because protecting both abortion rights and legalizing marijuana are amendments that are on the ballot in Florida.”

Ingham also worked for the Florida Democrats during the 2020 election cycle, phone banking for Broward County in an effort to inform and encourage interest in progressive issues. Ingham’s stake in community politics reveals a reason why students remain registered in their home states. 

Similar to Ingham, junior Lauren Eckstein plans to continue voting in her home state of Arizona because of local initiatives she cares about.

“I am using a mail-in ballot because I live in one of the most important swing states in the country, Arizona, in addition to an incredibly important Congressional district (AZ-01). I also care deeply about the local elections in my district, voting for candidates I worked for and know personally in my state legislature,” Eckstein wrote.

Eckstein noted that, similarly to Ingham, she would be voting on the issue of abortion in her home state. 

“Arizona also has a referendum to make abortions legal which is a great driver in my decision-making this election,” Eckstein said. “I see the most potential for direct change in my life through local politics.”

For students like Eckstein, working within systems of politics may compel one to stay invested in local issues. 

Senior Elena Egge had a similar experience after working with Cardinal and Pine, a digital journalism organization, reporting on educational issues associated with Project 2025. Egge explained that she thinks it is important to research local candidates and issues, but may always keep her registration in her home state.

“Depending on where I go, I may still try to vote by mail in North Carolina, just because, first of all, that is my home state where I’m born and raised. And it’s just because we keep having candidates like Mark Robinson, like Michelle Morrow, these people who are fundamentally against the rights of so many groups that I care about,” Egge said.

Ease of voting and logistical considerations

For some students, choosing where to register has less to do with specific political issues and more with the logistics of doing so in the first place.

Sophomore Gitanjali Raghava, who is from Maryland, said she didn’t switch her registration because she was unsure she would be able to vote in Missouri. 

“I read somewhere that you have to have a driver’s license in Missouri or have a permanent address, neither of which I have. So, I just thought it would be easier to vote in my home state, which is where I know I’m going to go back to after graduation,” Raghava said. 

While college students are indeed able to register in the state in which they attend school, different states have different requirements for registering, which may deter students from doing so. In Missouri, voters either need a Missouri driver’s license or a passport.  

“I feel like if it were a viable option, my vote would be welcome here. I just don’t know if I have the bandwidth to go through the steps of becoming eligible,” Raghava said.

Key ballot issues driving the switch to Missouri

There are, however, many students choosing to switch their voter registration to Missouri.

For sophomore Sarah Yu, an anthropology class changed her mind about where to vote. 

“I thought I was going to vote in Kentucky absentee because I thought either way, they’re both red states,” Yu said. “But I actually had an assignment in my class Culture and Environment, where we had to compare and contrast our home state versus the ballot here. I saw that there was an abortion initiative on the ballot and [one to] increase minimum wage, where I felt like I could actually make a difference in my vote,” Yu said.

Students voting in favor of progressive issues from both red states and blue states are choosing to vote in Missouri due to a few key ballot issues. In Kentucky, there will not be an amendment to reinstate the right to abortion on the ballot, but there will be in Missouri.

First-year Joey Zeigler Towey is another student from outside Missouri planning to vote in the state. He is a progressive voter registered in both Illinois, where he is from, and Missouri. While you can be registered in more than one state, you can only cast your vote in one. Though he feels more informed about local elections in his hometown of Chicago, Zeigler Towey still feels compelled to vote in Missouri. 

When asked about whether he felt his vote mattered, Zeigler Towey responded that Illinois is a safely blue state. 

“When I’m in Illinois, I’m contributing to the massive pool that’s already gonna be hard-line blue,” Zeigler Towey said. “But here, I’m making more of a swing.”

So, while he felt more connected to issues at home, he still felt inclined to send his vote toward big-ticket ballot issues.

“I feel like, for my values and my ideals, my vote would be better used here as opposed to a state that’s going to be hard blue, with issues on the ballot that are going to swing blue. And here, it’s important, especially with the abortion amendment on the ballot,” Ziegler Towey said.

Swing states, congressional districts, and perceived vote influence

In addition to considering ballot issues, students are also taking into account how they perceive the impact of their vote in their respective registered states.

“I’m registered in my home state of Georgia because it’s a swing state, and my vote will have a greater impact there,” sophomore Yugesh Muralidhar said.

Certain congressional districts are unique in the way that their electoral votes are decided by their states. Nebraska and Maine are two of the only states that divide up their electoral votes by congressional district, rather than using the winner-takes-all system that all other states utilize. 

First-year student JP Rogers said that he kept his registration in Omaha for this reason and because he is passionate about policies in Nebraska. 

“I’m currently registered to vote in Omaha because it has its own congressional district, which means it has its one electoral vote for just the Omaha metropolitan area that can go to either candidate,” Rogers said. “Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District has a fairly small voting pool, as opposed to Missouri, so my vote would be more impactful there. 

The importance of voting

Overall, students take into great account a number of factors before deciding where to register and ultimately place their vote. The desire to feel connected to home, interest in local politics, consideration of logistics, focus on big-ticket ballot issues, and perception of vote influence all play their parts in the registration decision. Student voters are also not a monolith; two students with identical political alignments from the same state may make totally different choices.

In response to people who decide not to vote due to the perceived ineffectiveness of their vote, Egge emphasized the importance of considering local effects. 

“Some of these races come down to hundreds and thousands of votes. That could completely transform the experience of the people living in your county, district, etc. I think [choosing not to vote is] a very privileged perspective to have, and you really just have to think outside of yourself. Even if it might not affect you, it will affect other people’s lives,” Egge said.

Many students are not just considering the presidential vote, but also emphasizing the issues that will be on their state ballots come Nov. 5. 

“I think [about], for women, how important abortion has been on the ballot. I think it’s important to know that you have a safe situation for yourself in the city that you go to college in,” Ingham said.

Yu’s experience with voter registration synthesized these points, underscoring the importance of considering specific ballot issues like abortion and the impacts they have.

“In Kentucky, in 2022, they had a very similar initiative on the ballot: it was ‘yes or no, should we constitutionally ban abortion?’ And ‘no’ actually won by 70,000 votes, which is crazy, because you think in Kentucky everyone’s probably really conservative. But knowing over a million people voted, and it only didn’t pass by 70,000 people…that influenced me to understand that voting does matter.”