{"id":58177,"date":"2014-09-29T13:00:47","date_gmt":"2014-09-29T17:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=58177"},"modified":"2014-09-28T16:44:42","modified_gmt":"2014-09-28T20:44:42","slug":"voter-registration-myths-and-facts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=58177","title":{"rendered":"Voter Registration: Myths and Facts"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Griffo<\/a>By Senator Joseph Griffo<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

(Rome, NY \u2013 Sept. 2014) \u201cBad officials are elected by good citizens who do not vote,\u201d writer George Jean Nathan once observed.<\/p>\n

Election Day is Nov. 4. To participate, however, you\u2019ll need to be registered to vote by Oct. 10.<\/p>\n

I know from reading research and talking to people that there are several reasons why people don\u2019t vote. First, I\u2019d like to tackle some misconceptions about registering to vote.<\/p>\n

Myth: If I register to vote, I\u2019ll be called for jury duty.<\/p>\n

Fact: Jurors are drawn from lists of taxpayers, licensed drivers and registered voters. Most people wouldn\u2019t give up their ability to drive a car in New York just to avoid jury duty. This is a lame excuse. It\u2019s in the Constitution that Americans have the right to a trial by jury of their peers. If you were accused of a crime, wouldn\u2019t you want someone to stand up for that right for you?<\/p>\n

Myth: If I register to vote here, I\u2019ll have to pay New York state income taxes.<\/p>\n

Fact: I encounter this misconception a lot with military families. If you have a residence here and in another state, you are considered a resident of New York \u2013 and all of your income is subject to New York tax \u2013 if you spend more than 183 days in the Empire State.\u00a0 If you can keep a good accounting of where you stayed during the year, voting registration will have no impact on your taxes.<\/p>\n

Myth: If I register here, I\u2019ll have to give up my scholarships or financial aid. And my parents won\u2019t be able to claim me as a dependent.<\/p>\n

Fact: Federal financial aid \u2013 such as Pell Grants, Stafford loans and SMART grants \u2013 do not consider voting registration. Almost all states give you financial aid to use in schools in their state. Rhode Island and Vermont are the only two state that let you use financial aid from them for college in New York. Vermont considers your parents\u2019 residency (assuming you live with them when not in school). Rhode Island considers voting registration as one many factors considered to determine if you are a resident of their state.<\/p>\n

As for your parents\u2019 ability to claim you as a dependent, that\u2019s based on your income and their support \u2013 not where you\u2019re registered to vote.<\/p>\n

Myth: If I register here, it will affect my health insurance or car insurance rates.<\/p>\n

Fact: Voter registration has no effect on health insurance. Insurers of cars are more interested in where you\u2019re driving your car. Voter registration is not considered.<\/p>\n

In my next column, I\u2019ll make the case for why you should vote in the upcoming election. To register, find the form here – http:\/\/www.elections.ny.gov\/NYSBOE\/download\/voting\/voteform.pdf<\/a> – or go to your local Board of Elections, which are listed here: http:\/\/www.elections.ny.gov\/CountyBoards.html<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Senator Joseph Griffo (Rome, NY \u2013 Sept. 2014) \u201cBad officials are elected by good citizens who do not vote,\u201d writer George Jean Nathan once observed. Election Day is Nov. 4. To participate, however, you\u2019ll need to be registered to vote by Oct. 10. I know from reading research and talking to people that there […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22341],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-58177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-regional"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=58177"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58177\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=58177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=58177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=58177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}