Southeast Missouri State University students can vote in their parents’ home county or in Cape Girardeau County. It just depends on where they are registered.
Kara Clark Summers is the Cape Girardeau County Clerk and election authority. She says college students have the ability to register in either place.
“They can only be registered in one location. So if they were registered in St. Louis, they would have to either voter there or get an absentee ballot sent to them,” Clark Summers said. “But if they had registered before the deadline, which was October 10, down here, then they would be able to vote down here.”
This caused some confusion in 2008. Clark Summers says over 100 students initially registered in St. Louis, but later registered in Cape Girardeau County. Unfortunately, the St. Louis system did not enter their St. Louis registration information until AFTER they registered in Cape Girardeau. When they arrived at the polls in Cape Girardeau, they were told they were not registered.
“I ended up just spending my entire day at the university precinct trying to resolve these issues to make sure that everybody that was eligible to vote got a chance to vote, which they did. I feel like we accommodated that,” Clark Summers said.
Clark Summers says the problem should be alleviated this November.