About Bill's remark about conscience: I'm a Minnesota-originating student who plans to caucus in Iowa (most likely for either Obama or Edwards), and I think his response was a little off-base. It's not uncommon for students to come from one state, go to college in another state, and then take up a career in another state altogether (with or without graduate school in between). The voting laws of Iowa and whatever "home state" (hah! College becomes home when you're there!) that the students come from give clear boundaries regarding what is legal. Knowing these boundaries, students can decide what is right to do NOW, when the opportunity to DO instead of WATCH is available to them and makes a big difference to their own futures, as well as the future of America and the world.

That's my take as a ticked-off student who has been mobilized into action, rather than inaction, by what I see as the Clinton camp's attack on my personal rights and the rights of political dissenters. Feel free to disagree with the students who are on the hot scene and immersed in all this stuff now (on top of all the pressure from final exams occurring around this time). Just know that we have reasons for disagreeing that this should even be a controversy.

Karen (and all other out-of-state students attending college in Iowa),

So, even though you are born and raised in another state, and go back there when not in school, you are telling me you are an Iowa resident? Do you pay out of state tuition? If so, it's pretty clear you DON'T live in Iowa; you go to school there.

If you can twist this fact into something different you're kidding yourself and breaking the law.

This is from the State of Iowa:

" Resident does not include a person who is attending a college or university in this state if the person has a domicile in another state and has a valid driver's license issued by the state of domicile. Resident also does not include members of the armed forces that are stationed in Iowa, providing that their vehicles are properly registered in their state of residency."

Sorry if I came across as rash, uninformed, and twisting facts. That wasn't my intent at all, so let me clarify a bit.

To respond to your questions about my residency, yes I actually am quite attracted to the idea of settling in Iowa for the foreseeable future, including grad school and possibly my career depending on my unknown future opportunities. (I also often catch myself referring to my dorm or apartment on campus as "home" in conversations with my friends and classmates now.) What I am not particularly attracted to or connected with anymore is any current personal or political affiliation with Minnesota since Iowa gets to see candidates up close and personal, unlike most other states (even its immediate neighbors). It's not feasible at all for me to caucus in Minnesota on Tuesday February 5th, a spring semester class day, and absentee voting there was inconvenient for me in previous years. I didn't even fill out an absentee ballot for this year there since to the best of my knowledge there was nothing on it. So it's been more than a year since I voted outside of Iowa. My Minnesota "residency" is only established by the fact that my parents live there and I'm financially dependent on them. None of the immediate future opportunities I'm interested in are in the state where my relatives live either. I don't really live there myself anymore so much as occasionally visit there on vacation, and I've spent part or most of my last three summers taking classes here rather than taking time off or working there.

As for out-of-state tuition, it supports Iowa's own economy along with other Iowa student spending, which makes out-of-state students valuable to Iowa -- particularly if they stay here after graduation. It's a chance Iowa is willing to give us and hopes to benefit from taking. The same goes for any other state that brings in students to build their own futures away from where they were born and raised. What does America care more about on the whole, anyway: who we are when we're born, or who we become as we grow into adulthood and independence? Whatever the other failings of American schools, I learned in them that the answer is origins shouldn't matter in America as much as decisions within the bounds of law. Please feel free to correct me if this is not actually something most Americans value. I have to wonder why it's even a question.

I won't pretend the choices I made were easy, but I really did make them by doing my own personal soul-searching about what matters most to me overall. I feel that the need to find facts, rather than what-ifs, is the more important consideration in any decision. I also think that the best opportunities to give the help we each can to those we can in the hope of helping all ... should not be missed by any who have an opportunity to do what many others cannot.

So my two remaining factual points to seek answers to right now are the following:
1) Whether Minnesota considers me a non-resident if I willingly release my right to vote there in favor of voting where I think I currently belong and may permanently settle. I submitted an inquiry to Minnesota's state department about their own laws on voting and residency for college students, and I hope to get a response soon.
2) Where you found that quote about driver's licenses and vehicle registration. Can you link to it for me, please? It matters since I found the information I currently have about Iowa and student voters on t two Iowa Secretary of State webpages.
Now, according to the student FAQ section on that first page and the downloadable PDF linked at the bottom of the second page, I don't need an Iowa driver's license, just the last 4 digits of my SSN#. I find that a welcoming, accommodating, and practical approach to students' transition period (from child to adult and from watcher to participant) quite a well-thought-out policy. I don't understand why there are these questions and controversies about Iowa's judgment and its right to control its own caucus and election processes. Where is the issue? Where is the basis for asserting that students would be attracted to voter fraud when that's far more trouble to take than voting at all in the first place? Doesn't America trust the judgment of its junior citizens when it comes to taking an all-things-considered view of decision-making and not letting any one item override all the rest? Trust in our own individual judgment and rights rights, and respect for our reasons to sometimes disagree with each other.

Pragmatic Liberal and everyone, I can't dictate your views for you and that's not what I'm trying to do here. I can only tell you my own view and ask you to consider my reasons for holding the views I hold, in light of the clarifying details. I'm sorry if I came off as being harsh, rash, or unthinking before. I felt very angry and insulted when I first saw this, and I'm calmer and more collected now.

It's not easy to be in the middle of political crossfire over being in the middle between states, when the specifics weren't ever under such heavy scrutiny before, especially with this timing. I am fairly stressed out at the moment due to my own exam deadlines, and I'm afraid it's very likely to be a stressful matter for all other students here too. It's hurtful even to students who grew up in Iowa but registered to vote at college instead of at their in-state permanent address, where the winter break caucus date places them more conveniently now than it conventionally did in the past. Questions are now being raised for them, too, about just which caucus community is their current politically active environment and how to make their own choice about it. The student voter issue came up right in the middle of the general end-of-semester crunch time for Iowa students, even though not all schools share the same semester or exam schedules, so many are likely to miss seeing this at all, much less know that it is making the national news. In fact, I'm the only student I know right now at my school who is paying close attention to this issue and its wider implications. It's sad, but there it is: the response by everyone here whom I tell has not been, "Oh yeah, I know about that!" Every time, the response is best condensed into "What? I didn't hear about that! Are you serious?" Yes, I'm serious -- serious about getting the best possible facts and resources out to help students and Iowans help each other deal with the doubts and make the best personal decisions they each can with the best information they can find. As I understand it, that's what the Democratic caucus is all about: helping each other come to a generally accepted consensus. I don't know much about the Republican side since that's not the caucus I've been studying for. I do think Republican students, too, can be hurt by this disagreement in the Democrats' race.

So, all things considered, I have my reasons to take this kind of thing rather personally, especially since Bill did say "Minnesota or wherever you're from" in his response to the question. That sounds to me as if he's less interested in responding to a prominent question with a factual answer -- indeed, his response is to raise other questions. Incidentally, does anyone know whether the questioner was actually from Minnesota? Just curious since I can't seem to find confirmation on that point anywhere I've looked for it.

Thanks to all those who take the time to read my long response in full and consider the full range of student perspectives! I hope the clarifying points I've tried to make here are helpful.

Oh, I think I know which page you might mean. This is the page Google led me to when I entered the full text of the quote you cited -- it's the Iowa Department of Transportation webpage on driver licensing and vehicle registration in Iowa.

Again, let's take a full-picture perspective. This is a Department of Transportation page, not the Secretary of State pages specifically devoted to elections, which I cited above. The two departments have some basis for disagreement since their practical concerns are separate. Overall, the page just tells students in transition to Iowa life to register as voters before they register as drivers. That's an interesting note to make about Iowa. I wonder if it might be meant by the DOT as an active endorsement of doing one's civic duty. That sounds like Iowa from my insider's point of view, definitely. You don't have to agree with me though, Pragmatic, whether or not you're from Iowa yourself. But this page is very helpful to me for my personal future too, so THANK YOU for bringing it to my attention! Like I said before -- it's all about helping everyone be able to help themselves. :)

All right, additional text from this page for readers here:
"New Residents
If you just moved to Iowa, you are considered an Iowa resident for the purposes of driver licensing and vehicle registration when you have done at least one of the following:
* registered to vote.
* enrolled your children in public school.
* accepted a permanent job.
* resided in Iowa for 30 continuous days."

And again:

"Certification of Iowa Residency
You are considered an Iowa resident for the purposes of driver licensing and vehicle registration when you have done at least one of the following:
...
* Registered to vote in Iowa.
...
Acceptable items to certify your Iowa residency include:
* Iowa voter registration card.
..."

The page also says to turn in your out-of-state license to trade it for an Iowa license, which is an obvious point. Anyway, the message conveyed by this page to college students is that if they don't register to vote here, then registering here as a driver is much harder and discouraged for the students who live on campus with constant changes of campus address from year to year, living in a transition between past and future (aka living in the moment). Very practical of the DOT, overall.

So, I might point out that it's dangerous to let the specific wording of any quote from anywhere get in the way of its message, source, and underlying principle. This is exactly why our professors teach us to look for strong facts from the best possible sources, and to specifically cite those sources when presenting the details we think are most relevant. Nice to confirm that this principle applies outside the classroom and academic part of our lives. I think I've just made a pretty solid case for students being well-informed decision-makers during our biggest transition time in life.

So if Minnesota chooses to kick me further out of my family support network prematurely for taking steps to slowly become an Iowan, I think that's their choice and would be their own loss if they took that stance on students. I'll wait to hear back from them about it before making any final judgment, though.