Are you a college student seeking to register to vote? Barack Obama’s website makes it easy. But does the site follow the law? Let’s take a look.

First the site asks, “Where will you be living on Election Day, November 4th?” Next it asks, “Is there another state where you might be registered?” Presumably, many college students who attend school in one state but live with their parents in another will answer this question in the affirmative. The answers to these two questions prompt curious suggestions from the Obama website.

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If the respondent states that she is registered to vote at her parents’ home in Pennsylvania (a “battleground” state) but will be in her dorm in New York (a safe Obama state) on Election Day, the website recommends that the student vote by absentee ballot in Pennsylvania. No problem there — that is the legal solution in most cases. But if the respondent says she is registered in New York but studying in battleground Pennsylvania, Obama recommends that she register to vote in Pennsylvania (and presumably de-register in New York)!

Clearly, Obama is trying to switch voter registration of Democrats (who are, of course, more likely to go to his website than are Republicans) to battleground states such as Virginia, where I work. This campaign tactic raises legal and ethical questions. Is Sen. Obama’s campaign encouraging voter fraud? Is it encouraging college students to take actions that may be harmful without informing them of relevant risks? If so, what does this say about the integrity of the campaign?

First, the law. A September 8 New York Times article headlined “Voter Registration by Students Raises Cloud of Consequences” states that a Supreme Court case has held that “students have the right to register at their college address.” That’s at best an incomplete, and at worst a misleading, statement of the law. The article refers to Symm v. United States, a 1979 case affirming (without discussion) a decision by a special three-judge district-court panel.

That panel had held that LeRoy Symm, a county commissioner, had erred when determining whether a young college student could vote in his district. The case reiterates not that college students have an automatic right to vote where they are studying, but merely that they must be treated like anyone else who applies to register to vote in the county. In other words, states and counties may ask reasonable questions about legal residency and the eligibility to vote of college students, and they may require documentary support for the student’s claims, but only if they apply the same rules to all would-be voters.

Relying perhaps on the same inaccurate interpretation of Symm, the ACLU of Virginia faxed a letter to Virginia voting registrars on September 4, insisting that students have the right to register where they go to school. According to the ACLU, Virginia registrars must register students if they “have a local residential address,” without “any special inquiries or burdens.”