Once again, the issue of college students voting in local elections has created controversy in Dutchess County.
And, once again, some public criticisms are, for the most part, gravely misplaced.
This time, challenges were lodged against Vassar College students in the Town of Poughkeepsie as well as Bard College students in the Town of Red Hook — and even against some homeless men and women who showed up at polling places in the City of Poughkeepsie.

In these instances, Republican officials claimed the students and the homeless should not be permitted to vote until they proved they lived in the district where they wanted to cast their ballots. Supreme Court Justice James V. Brands made the sensible ruling permitting homeless voters to use the Family Partnership Center on North Hamilton Street as their permanent address. Hopefully, this will resolve that issue.

But Brands also issued an order requiring Vassar students to vote with paper "affidavit" ballots that could be voided after the election if officials determined they were not voting in the district where they lived. That ruling applied to some Bard students facing similar challenges in Red Hook. But state Appellate Division Justice Mark Dillon subsequently amended Brands' order for all students on Election Night, ruling that if two or more of the four election inspectors at each polling site agreed to let a student vote, he or she would be permitted to use a voting machine rather than an affidavit ballot.

College students are transient. Many are not originally from the area. Many move each year, first staying in dorms and then opting for off-campus housing. Even if they stay on campus, as is typically the case at Vassar, complications can arise. The Vassar campus is in multiple voting districts. That's why it's imperative students check beforehand to ensure they are not only on the county voter rolls but are using the proper district as well. Republican officials had every right to check on this and insist on compliance.

But the issue once again sparked a debate in the forums on the Poughkeepsie Journal's Web site about whether students should have the right to vote in local elections.

They should, for many reasons.

Many young adults become politically aware during their college days, and political parties would be foolish to ignore this group of voters. The argument that students should vote in their hometowns because they don't pay property taxes here simply doesn't stand up to scrutiny, either. For starters, they most likely aren't paying property taxes in their hometowns, since typically they are living with their parents. But they do pay sales tax when they purchase goods locally, and the colleges themselves are unquestionably economic engines for the area. In fact, all the local colleges hold multitudes of cultural and sporting events, enjoyed not only by those college communities but by the public at large.

It's worth noting that in this year's election, turnout was again abysmal. Not even 40 percent of voters registered in Dutchess County bothered to come and cast their ballots. At stake were the county comptroller's race (essentially who would be the county's top fiscal watchdog), control of the county Legislature and, for most voters, the makeup of town and village boards that will help guide growth in their communities.
It also is worth noting that, thanks to grants secured by Dr. Sarita McCoy Gregory, assistant professor of Vassar College's Department of Political Science, 175 college students served as poll workers in Dutchess County last year, and 43 did so this year, according to Dutchess County Election Commissioner Fran Knapp.
Should the county accept their help and then refuse them the right to vote? Of course not. While the onus remains on the students — and every voter, for that matter — to register correctly and know where they are supposed to cast their ballots, their right to do so here in the mid-Hudson Valley should remain beyond question.