As election day approaches, many members of the Carleton community are casting their votes through absentee voting — a process that can be difficult to navigate, and often involves personal calculations on where their vote will “count” most. Absentee voting is a way for voters to cast their ballot early by mail and is a common choice for out-of-state college students who want to vote in their home state, including many Carleton students.
The absentee voting process is broadly the same in every state: voters send an application for an absentee ballot to their state’s election office, the election office mails the ballot to their address, they complete the ballot and then finally mail it back to their state office to be counted. However, the specific rules surrounding this process vary drastically state to state. 26 states allow voters to obtain an absentee ballot without an “excuse,” 16 require specific “excuses” and eight send all voters mail-in ballots. Attending college is a valid excuse in all states, though this is expressed more explicitly in some states than others. The deadline for each step of the process also depends on each state and impacts whether a vote is counted. In addition, some states require photocopies of IDs to be included in the envelope, and some require witness or notary signatures.
“I first submitted my application for a ballot the day I arrived here at Carleton, more than five weeks ago,” says Taylor Brewer ’28. Brewer is voting for the first time this election through an absentee ballot from Houston. For him, the process has presented challenges.
“I waited, and I kept waiting, and then I got a notification in the mail that I needed to resubmit my application.. because they found some problem with my application,” Brewer said. No explanation was given for the rejected application, but Brewer guessed that it could have been because he crossed out an extraneous field on the form.
He resubmitted his application. This time, Brewer said he was “very careful to make sure everything was right the first time” and to “not fill in anything that would give them reason to doubt.” A few weeks later, Brewer finally received his ballot in the mail.
“The submission itself was pretty smooth,” Brewer said, having received the ballot on Oct. 17 and submitted it by Oct. 24 to have ample time for the ballot to reach the election office. However, during his interview with the Carletonian, when trying to check the status of his ballot using his Texas county’s online tool, the website showed no information about his ballot. This discovery elicited immediate distress and suddenly cast doubt on whether his vote had been counted after all.
Trixie Aguas ’28, who is also voting absentee in Texas, has encountered some challenges as well. Aguas submitted an application for a ballot several weeks ago. When checking the online ballot tracker, it shows that their application was accepted and the ballot has been sent, but they have not yet received it. Aguas is now worried that they will not be able to send back the ballot in time for it to be received on Nov. 5th, but she is at least assured by having the option to vote in Minnesota.
“If the [absentee] voting ballot doesn’t work out, then — because there’s same-day voting registration — I will just vote same-day in Minnesota. At least I have that backup plan,” Aguas said.
Out-of-state students, like Aguas, have the option of voting in either their home state or Minnesota. The Center of Community and Civic Engagement’s FAQ on voting says that students “should vote at the address [they] consider home.” Often, students consider several complex factors in making this decision, primarily where they think their vote would “count more.”
“It wasn’t even a question,” Sia Tarawally ’28, who voted in her home state of Pennsylvania, said. “I voted there because it’s a swing state. I felt like my vote would count much more there.”
For students not living in clear presidential swing states, state elections weighed more heavily in their decision.
“I voted mail-in in Maryland because I wanted to vote against Larry Hogan for Senator because he sucks, and I have a personal vendetta against him,” Kate Ward ’25 said. Former Maryland Governor Larry Hogan is running against Democrat Angela Alsobrooks in a highly contested election that could determine which party gains control of the Senate.
“The primary reason I wanted to vote in Texas was because I wanted to cast a vote for Colin Allred, who is running for the Senate seat in Texas. Due to the closeness of the race, I believe that’s where my vote would have the most impact,” Taylor Brewer said. Democrat Colin Allred is running against incumbent Republican Ted Cruz in a closer-than-expected race for Texas, with Cruz only leading by one percentage point in polls.
At the same time, some Carleton students did consider the idea of ‘home’ when making their choice.
“It’s not just ‘where does my vote weigh more,’ but also pride in where I’m casting my vote and where I can affect change,” Brewer said. “I don’t have a personal stake in Minnesota or Minnesotans besides my time being here, whereas I have family and friends in Texas. Being able to cast a vote that betters their lives has more value to me.
Anoushka Mallik ’25 is voting in Minnesota “because I’m from Massachusetts and I also care about the mayoral race here.” Mallik considered her vote to count more in Northfield.
In many cases, the process of absentee voting itself is what determines their decision. Ward acknowledged that the ease of Maryland’s mail-in ballot system, which she described as “transparent,” also positively affected her decision to vote absentee. On the other hand, Luis Oviedo ’28 chose to vote in Northfield instead of Texas “because I’m too lazy to do a mail-in ballot.”
While this is the first time voting absentee for many students, Professor Sonja Anderson has been voting absentee her entire life. She first voted absentee for California in the 2004 George Bush vs John Kerry election and continued to do so ever since.
When she received a tenure-track position at Carleton, she decided to “put down some roots in the form of switching my voter registration to Minnesota.” However, she still requested a mail-in ballot for Minnesota, which is a no-excuses-required state.
“I’ve just always done mail-in,” she said. “I’ve never been to a polling place. Why would I do that when I could just do mail-in and give myself the time to gradually fill out the ballot?”