It is difficult to understand why after over 47 years, the issue of college student voting rights is still being challenged.

In 1971, I was a student at the University of Maine Portland-Gorham, and challenged the town of Gorham to allow me the right to vote in the 1972 elections. The Gorham Board of Voter Registration denied me the right to register simply because I was a college student.

The facts that I lived off-campus, worked locally part-time, paid the then-required poll tax, registered my car in Maine, had a Maine driver’s license and provided the Board with requested letter’s from professors stating that I intended to remain in Maine after graduation to pursue a teaching career was insufficient evidence that I should be permitted the right to vote. I challenged the town and with the help of the Maine ACLU, was successful in overturning the board’s denial.

During the course of this dispute, then-Secretary of State Joseph T. Edgar stated that among the criteria he would seek in determining the right to register to vote in a community were: intending to live in the community permanently, proven by “buying a house, marrying a local girl, excising a motor vehicle, engaging in local affairs or joining a church.”

That the city of Waterville is using similar requirements for allowing students the right to vote is evidence that, after over 47 years, uniform voter registration laws are not being implemented and enforced throughout the state.

Frederick Conti

Falmouth

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