On campus, a ballot push
Students see votes wasted in Mass.
Every vote may matter, but some votes matter much more than others -- namely if they are cast by students who hail from a swing state.
With a John Kerry victory all but assured in Massachusetts, out-of-state students are arming themselves with absentee ballots to maximize their political clout.
''I figure John Kerry could use my vote more in North Carolina than in Massachusetts," said Chailee Mann-Stadt, a 21-year-old native of Asheville, N.C., studying at Wellesley College, where a nonpartisan student group is urging students to register in their home states by absentee ballot.
''Massachusetts is not in play," said Kimberly Chin, chairwoman of Wellesley College's Committee for Political and Legislative Action, which wrapped up a campus registration drive last week. ''We're encouraging everyone to vote where their vote can have the most sway.
''You see that red and blue map everywhere you go," Chin said, referring to a map designating expected results in each state. ''We're in a position where we can choose where to vote, and this is the only time we're going to have that chance."
Of some 670 students registered this month, nearly 500 signed up in their home states, Chin said. The most recent poll by the American Research Group had Kerry's support in his home state of Massachusetts at 64 percent, as opposed to many states where polls predict an extremely close outcome.
Ross Kukish, a junior at Bentley College in Waltham, hasn't decided whom to vote for, but he's decided where -- his home state of New Hampshire, where polls have Kerry in a dead heat with President Bush.
''This makes it a lot more interesting," Kukish said.
Kukish helped launch a nonpartisan college registration drive this semester that distributed voter information through required freshman seminars. As a result, roughly 75 percent of first-year students are registered.
Paola Moll, a Bentley College junior who helped organize the drive, said that the opportunity to vote in battleground states is serving as an extra incentive for students to get involved with politics.
''The first thing I ask is, 'What state are you from?' If they say Florida or Ohio, I tell them, 'That's wonderful. Your vote will really count there because it's so close.' "
After the contested 2000 presidential election, the Sept. 11 attacks, and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, students perceive that the stakes in this election are exceptionally high.
''After the 2000 election, people think a lot more closely about the electoral college," said Emily Kirby, a research associate at The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement. ''They know every vote can count."
But Adam Alexander of the New Voters Project, the country's largest nonpartisan voter registration drive, said the group does not use absentee ballots, believing college students should vote where they live. College students also are less likely to vote by absentee ballot than in person, he said.
''If you're living someplace for nine or 10 months out of the year, you're part of the community."
Alexander said college students sometimes face opposition from municipal officials who discourage them from registering locally or turn them away on Election Day for not having a local driver's license or proof of residency. What constitutes residency varies greatly among states and communities, and the project is urging colleges to work with local officials to accept college IDs, Alexander said.
Some students opt to vote in their hometowns because of interest in local and congressional races, and because of a mistaken impression that registering in Massachusetts could affect their health insurance or automobile insurance, said Sarah Kelly, a member of the Wellesley political committee.
Nationally, youth voting has declined by 13 percentage points since 1972, and in 2000, just 42 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds voted. In Massachusetts, 47 percent did. But college students are far more likely to vote. In 2000, 72 percent of college students cast ballots.
''There really has been a sea change in how college students view the electoral process," said Tony Pals, a spokesman for the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities. ''We haven't seen this much interest in an election in decades."
A new poll conducted by the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement found that 46 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds plan to vote for John Kerry, and 40 percent for George Bush.
Amber Gorman, copresident of the Wellesley College Democrats, said her group is aggressively courting students to vote absentee to boost Kerry's chances.
''After 2000, everyone's pretty strategic at this point," she said. ''Getting the swing-state voters to vote absentee is crucial."
Jessica Varat, 20, said she hadn't given the location of her polling place much thought, but fellow Kerry supporters have beseeched her to send her ballot back home to Pittsburgh. ''Everyone's been telling me, 'If you're going to vote, vote in Pennsylvania.' "
Justin Galacki, president of the College Democrats of Boston College, said that, while his group had registered 160 students in Massachusetts, 500 students had requested absentee ballot forms.
''When someone's registering who says they're from Ohio, we say, 'Get to the front of the line,' " he said. ''People realize Massachusetts is going to go heavily to Senator Kerry, and they want to help his chances elsewhere."
At Brandeis University in Waltham, campus Democrats have distributed lists of states that had narrow margins of victory in 2000.
''I think that people realize that voting in Massachusetts is just not as important as voting in Ohio or Pennsylvania," said Adam Schwartzbaum, a 19-year-old Kerry supporter who will vote in Florida.
A distinct minority in Massachusetts, Bush supporters on college campuses are similarly focusing their efforts in contested states. Nick Abramson, president of the Brandeis College Republicans, expects higher turnout among out-of-state Bush supporters because they won't view their vote as a lost cause. Max Buccini, president of the Boston College Republicans, said his group's main thrust is registering students from swing states.
Buccini said that at a luncheon at the Republican National Convention, Karl Rove, a senior strategist for Bush, told the Massachusetts student delegation to focus its attention on absentee ballots.
''For everyone else, he said there were 64 days to go until the election," Buccini said. ''For us, he said the number was 32 [days until the deadline to get an absentee ballot]. We took that to heart."
Will Reddy, president of the Student Government Association at Framingham State College, said he didn't believe an expected Kerry win in the state will dampen the turnout.
''This is a very polarized atmosphere," he said. ''You're either for one side or the other. There's no middle ground."
Globe correspondent Emma Stickgold contributed to this article. Peter Schworm can be reached at schworm@globe.com. 