Students may register to vote either at their college address or at their home address, not both. So, your first decision will be which county to register to vote in. This is your decision, but some considerations students use are:
1. Do I want to vote by mail or in person? Assuming your college is not in the same county as your home county, if you are registered in your home county, you will need to vote by mail.
2. Where do I consider “home”? If you do not plan to return to your home county other than to visit family, you may wish to register in the county where your college is.
3. Where will your vote be “strategic”? You may feel passionately about a candidate or issue, in eitheryour home county or your college county, in which case, you may want to register to vote there. Assuming you choose to vote in your home county, you will complete an Application for Ballot by Mail under the “absent from county” provision. You will have your ballot sent to your college address, and then complete and return it just like any other person. Please make sure you do this with plenty of time.
What if you are registered at your college address but now are taking classes from home?
If you have registered at your college address, and wish to vote in your college town’s elections, you would need to request an absentee ballot from that county / state (if not Texas). You should Google “[your college town] absentee voting”]. If you have registered to vote at your college address and now wish to vote at your new address and that college address is not in Texas, you need to revoke your voter registration in that other state. Google “[your college state] revoke voter registration.” If you have registered to vote at your college address and now wish to vote at your new address and that college address is in Texas, you need to complete a new voter registration application. You can request an application to register to vote by going to https://bit.ly/VoterRegSAAVETX and completing the online form. At the end of this process you will be given an option to either (1) receive a printed form in the mail for you to sign, date and enter your ID information (Texas Drivers License or State Identification number or social security number), and then return to your county in the provided prepaid envelope, or (2) download a pdf of your application for you to print, sign, date, and mail yourself.
IF YOU REQUEST AN APPLICATION TO REGISTER TO VOTE USING THIS ONLINE TOOL AFTER SEPTEMBER 15, WE HIGHLY RECOMMEND THAT YOU SELECT OPTION 2 AND PRINT THE PDF YOURSELF AND PLACE THE COMPLETED APPLICATION IN THE MAIL AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. THE VOTER REGISTRATION DEADLINE IS POSTMARKED ON OR BEFORE OCTOBER 5.