Politics on the Hudson

Students at Indiana’s state universities such as Purdue and Indiana University were able to use their student IDs to qualify to vote Tuesday, but that wasn’t true for some attending private schools such as DePauw University.

Ted Tubekis, 21, a senior at DePauw who is from Chicago, said he was told the paperwork he filled out April 3 did not meet a 60-day advance requirement.

Under the Indiana Voter ID law recently upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court, state or federal photo ID cards such as a driver’s license are required at the state’s polling places.
ID cards issued by private colleges don’t qualify under the state law.

Instead, students at private colleges are encouraged to vote in the state where they permanently live or to change their permanent residency to Indiana and obtain a photo ID issued by the state, such as a driver’s license.

The Student PIRG New Voters Project reported similar problems experienced by two students at the University of Notre Dame and Butler University, two other private colleges.

Tubekis was not offered a provisional ballot when he and several other DePauw students were turned away at the Putnam County Courthouse.

Bethany Derringer, a spokeswoman for the Indiana Secretary of State, said they should have been and should contact the state.

It wasn’t clear Tuesday what effect the law, which took effect July 1, 2005, was having on the outcome of the Democratic presidential primary given Barack Obama’s support among college students.

Michael Tennery, 22, a DePauw senior from Union City, Ind., said a number of students voted for Obama by absentee ballot. “I would say the majority, if they voted Democrat, voted for Obama,’’ he said,

“I think a lot of students are voting for Obama,’’ said Tubekis. “It’s just a youth kind of thing.’’

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