Feature photo by Siri Reynolds
Story by Siri Reynolds
Many MTSU students will place their votes on Nov. 5 at a voting location less than half a mile from campus. For students who live outside of Rutherford County, however, much more planning is involved to vote.
Braxton Orrell and Seth Lindner are both sophomore audio production majors from the suburbs of Atlanta. Orrell is absentee voting, and Lindner plans to return to Georgia for early voting.
Classes will proceed as usual at MTSU on Election Day, and absentee voting in Georgia begins after fall break. These reasons encouraged Orrell to sign up for an absentee ballot.
“I can’t go back and vote and also do my classes at the same time because they overlap,” Orrell said.
First-time voters registered in Tennessee cannot vote absentee unless they are on the permanent absentee register or enrolled in the Safe at Home program–designations that do not apply to many MTSU students. Some students, like Raven Cheatham, a senior journalism major from Memphis, would rather not vote absentee anyway.
“I wanted to do it in person because my grandmother, she’s always encouraged me to vote,” Cheatham said. “So I thought it would be best if I go in person to get the experience and to truly live out the opportunity to even get to vote.”
Unlike Tennessee, Georgia is one of 28 no-excuse states, which means that any voter can submit an absentee ballot by mail.
According to Orrell, the process is not difficult.
“It was pretty chill, there’s a website, and I put in my Social Security and stuff,” Orrell said.
Although the process to register for an absentee ballot in Georgia is relatively easy, many MTSU students will return home in time for early voting. However, MTSU’s fall break is before early voting opens in most states, including Georgia.
Lindner is returning to Georgia to vote because it is easier than absentee voting.
“I messed up my absentee voting,” Lindner said. “I think I filled out something wrong, so to make it easier, I just changed it to home voting.”
Atlanta is approximately a three-and-a-half-hour drive from Murfreesboro, and early in-person voting is only available between Oct. 15 and Nov. 1. Many MTSU students live in states where early voting starts even later. In two of Tennessee’s bordering states, Mississippi and Alabama, there is no in-person early voting, and absentee voters must meet certain eligibility requirements.
Students from other counties who attend MTSU are generally able to register to vote in Rutherford County if they wish. Cheatham, for example, registered in Rutherford County so that she wouldn’t have to return to Memphis.
“I am in Rutherford County more than I’m back home,” Cheatham said. “[At] the time of the election, I’m here in Rutherford County, so I thought it would be best to do that for the distance and also for the convenience.”
However, this is not always a viable option for students. Orrell said that voting in Tennessee would be more inconvenient than absentee voting.
“I registered to vote two years ago when I thought I was gonna be in Georgia for college, and then I wasn’t,” said Orrell. “It’s not easy to change it when all my other addresses are still in Georgia.”
Orrell and Lindner are also more inclined to vote in their home state for political reasons. They feel that they are in a particularly unique situation as young voters in Georgia, which has become a battleground state since a series of unexpected Democratic victories in 2020.
“It’s important because Georgia’s a swing state,” Orrell said. “What we have to do affects everyone around us and how the country will be for the next more than four years.”
Even though Tennessee is a much less competitive state, Cheatham echoed the same sentiment.
“I know my vote counts and matters,” Cheatham said. “It’s up to people like me to go out and vote and make my voice be heard.”
Siri Reynolds is a reporter for MTSU Sidelines.
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