Where will you ‘CountMore?’
By: Politico
CountMore is a new Web site providing college students around the nation with a means of discovering where their votes will have the most impact come election time. While comparing home states with school states, the site will tell students where their vote will "count more."
In 1979, a Supreme Court ruling stated that college students had the right to vote either at home or in the town where they went to school. Around Virginia Tech, there have been several representatives from the Democratic and Republican parties encouraging students to vote here, rather than requesting an absentee ballot from their home town or state.
The actual CountMore Web site was developed by Front Seat, a civic software company based in Washington. Matt Lerner, Front Seat’s chief technology officer who was previously employed by Microsoft for five years, believes that every college student should vote while also understanding in which state their vote is more important.
"CountMore wants to get students out there, talking about voting and doing it where it matters most," Lerner said.
CountMore.org was a brainchild of Lerner’s and was developed and up and running in less than a week. The project was launched on Sept. 19, following national attention that Lerner and his partner, Jesse Kocher, had received with other projects, such as Walk Score which rates the ‘walkability’ of a specific establishment. Specifically, CountMore hopes to encourage students to register to vote as well as engage in dialogue with other friends who may not be registered.
"The national voter turnout in 2004 was at 55 percent," Lerner said. "I think we’re going to see students turn out in greater numbers because there’s so much excitement around this election, and for many of them it is their first voting experience."
Kocher agrees with Lerner.
"It’s more important for people to feel like their vote matters, especially when it’s their first time," Kocher said. "College students have just gotten to be the age that they are allowed to vote, and that’s a great time for them to step up and make a decision."
Virginia is especially important because of its status as a battleground state. No candidate has overwhelming support. In battleground states, votes count more because of the Electoral College; the 2000 election was decided by roughly 500 votes in Florida. That said, CountMore proposes that votes there may have not counted as much as they might have in another state.
Aleisha Jacobson also works with the developers of the CountMore Web site. She believes that everyone, not even just students, need to get out to vote and research where their votes might have more weight.
"I think that with the way the Electoral College works, unfortunately some places do have votes that count more," Jacobson said. "It’s important to always be responsible when you register to vote, and make your own decision."
Recently in Virginia, there was a controversy over registering to vote in a different state than the one that you used to fill out scholarships and other applications for financial aid. The state issued two incorrect releases warning students of the consequences of registering to vote at school. These releases also stated that students could potentially no longer be claimed as dependents of their parent. CountMore hopes to alleviate the stress that this may cause for students who are registering in different states.
The deadline to register to vote in Virginia is Oct. 6. The deadline to order an absentee ballot is Oct. 28.
Justin Graves reports for Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University’s Collegiate Times. The Collegiate Times is partnering with Campus Politico for the 2008 elections.