Home: where the vote is

Democrats seek an edge by getting students from battlegrounds to cast absentee ballot

At a Boston University registration drive last spring, Democrats were urging students to vote in their home states. (David L. Ryan/Globe Staff)

At voter registration drives on Massachusetts college campuses, Democrats are adding a twist to the familiar adage that every vote counts: Your vote counts more in Florida.

Haunted by the 537-vote margin in Florida that swung the 2000 presidential election to George W. Bush and confident of Massachusetts' Democratic vote in November, the state Democratic Party has launched an unprecedented campaign to get thousands of students registered to vote and remind those from swing states that they can vote at home.

Of particular interest are students from such battleground states as Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and neighboring New Hampshire.

"If Florida is going to come down to 537 votes, I don't want to wake up on Nov. 5 and think we may have missed one student at BC, one student at Williams, or one student at UMass who could have voted there but instead voted in Amherst because it was more convenient," said state Senator Benjamin B. Downing, a 27-year-old Pittsfield Democrat who is one of the leaders of the effort.

With more than 450,000 college students, Massachusetts is seen as prime territory to export votes to states where they are needed. But whether there are enough to swing an election remains an open question. Local campuses are dominated by students from Massachusetts - quickly followed by those from Democratic bastions such as California, New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. Democrats are eager to claim the votes anyway.

"In Florida in 2000 and Ohio in 2004, we've really seen the impact that just a few hundred votes can make," said Melissa Roberts, vice president of the College Democrats of Boston College. "If those few hundred votes are from BC students, then I think we've done our job."

The decision to vote in Massachusetts or at home is not without consequences for some students whose financial aid, insurance, or scholarship eligibility could be affected. But some are opting to vote at home, hoping to tip the balance in states where the race may be more competitive.

At a table in Boston University's George Sherman Student Union this month, Kate Hamilton, an 18-year-old freshman, filled out a form to register to vote in her contested home state of Minnesota.

"I wasn't sure how it would work but they just said that Minnesota is more of a swing state," she said.

Her friend Matt Ketai was already registered to vote in his home state of New Mexico, which is also considered a battleground in November.

Students who voted in past elections have tended to cast ballots in their home states, according to voting studies. But Democrats are looking to reach the ones who may be put off by the process of applying for absentee ballots and returning them in time to be cast at home.

"Our first priority is to make sure that everyone is registered to vote," said Stacey Monahan, executive director of the state Democratic Party, which also hopes to significantly boost its young ranks through the drive. "If we can be strategic about it and really make an impact in the national election, then that is where we're headed."

The coordinated Democratic effort began with US Representative Michael Capuano, a Somerville Democrat, in a brainstorming meeting last year between party leaders and members of the Massachusetts delegation.

"It's a great idea and one of those ideas when we were originally talking about it, we were almost kind of baffled that it hadn't been done before," said Downing.

Downing and Capuano appeared at a Students for Change rally at BU last weekend, along with Governor Deval Patrick and Rob Corddry, formerly of "The Daily Show" with Jon Stewart.

In recent weeks, state Democratic committee leaders have been meeting and holding conference calls with college Democrats and providing packets of information for voter registration, along with forms that can be used to register in all states but New Hampshire. (Students can vote by absentee ballot in New Hampshire but first must register in person.) College Democrats gathered groups to canvass in New Hampshire yesterday.

At BU and Clark University in Worcester, students are going "dorm storming," stalking the halls and knocking on doors with voter registration forms. They're also setting up tables where students can get the forms and advice, such as what to write in the "ID number" space. (The last four digits of the Social Security number or the number on a driver's license.)

"We just want to make it easy as possible," said Meagan Covino, a 20-year-old junior at Clark.

"When somebody has registered with us, we're going to follow up with them to ask them: Have you received any confirmation that you were registered? Do you need help requesting an absentee ballot?" said Jason Palitsch, 19, a sophomore who serves as president of the Northeastern University College Democrats.

Nationwide, young voter turnout has been up for three successive elections - those in 2004, the 2006 congressional elections, and the 2008 primary, noted Peter Levine, director of the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement at Tufts University.

"That's pretty important context because a lot of people start with the assumption that young people never vote," said Levine. "There's a fairly significant trend that started before Obama was a national candidate."

If Democrats are able to harness that enthusiasm on Massachusetts campuses, it remains uncertain how many votes they could send to other states. In 2006, New Hampshire exported fewer than 2,000 new freshmen to Massachusetts; about 760 came from Florida and some 960 came from Pennsylvania, according to the US Department of Education.

Assuming that enrollments remain steady and that every eligible student votes absentee in November, Massachusetts campuses could send about 3,000 votes to Florida, a tiny fraction of the more than 5.8 million people who voted in that state in 2000.

The bottom line for Democrats: "They could make a difference," Capuano said.