As As Mike Connery writes at Future Majority, Chris Dodd has stumbled into the debate over the voting rights of Iowa students. First the Dodd campaign released a statement encouraging Iowa students to caucus for their candidate. But then Dodd himself, speaking with the Iowa Daily, suggested that only students who were raised in Iowa should caucus. He compared out-of-state students to campaign staffers who live in Iowa for a year. This is ludicrous. Let's get the facts straight: Iowa and federal law allow young people to vote wherever they have a residence, including a dormitory. Would we bar a 25 or 60 year old from caucusing because he had only lived in Iowa for six months? Of course not. Iowa even has same-day caucus registration! Students take four years or more to complete college. They live on their campuses for 9 to 12 months out of the year, often working in the local economy and paying state taxes. Many become active volunteers in the communities that house their colleges. To deny them the voting rights older Americans take for granted is rank age discrimination. In a process as anti-democratic as the Iowa caucuses -- a highly influential contest that caters to a disproportionately white and elderly electorate -- candidates should be doing everything they can to involve young people. If the excitement of Iowa inspires students to get involved with their first presidential election, they should be encouraged to do so, regardless of where their parents live. Kudos to Barack Obama for intuitively understanding this, and not selling one message on campus and another to the dead tree press. --Dana Goldstein
