On the day of the Pennsylvania primary, choosing a candidate will be the hardest part. But in some other states, registering to vote can be an even bigger challenge.
As the youth vote becomes increasingly pivotal this election year, young voters are facing additional requirements before they are allowed to cast a ballot at their respective voting precincts.
"Students often face requirements not extended to the rest of the country," said Sujatha Jahagirdar, the program director of Student Public Interest Research Groups' New Voters Project.
Penn students, however, have been fortunate. In Pennsylvania, voters casting a ballot in a certain precinct for the first time must show identification, but there are not specific requirements for students.
But Jahagirdar cited several instances in South Carolina, Virginia, Maine, Arizona and New Mexico in which students could not register to vote on their college campuses. In Virginia, for example, out-of-state students are required to vote in the state where they are "dependent on tax returns," "dependent on parents," or where a "scholarship requires legal residence."
"Those regulations send the message that students aren't welcome," Jahagirdar said.
But College junior Stephanie Simon, president of Penn Leads the Vote - a non-partisan student organization that deals with voter registration and participation - said she believes voting on campus is simple and that students face few problems.
"[We] have not had much trouble in the past with students being denied the right to vote on Election Day because of identification issues," Simon said. "But we are encouraging all students to bring an approved U.S. government-issued or student ID with them to their polling place."
Simon added that she and other political student groups expect the primary to run efficiently in April and be conducive to student turnout.
"We will make poll workers aware that PennCards are approved by the state as valid forms of voter identification," Simon said, "and we do not anticipate a problem on Election Day."
When voting at a precinct for the first time in Pennsylvania, either photo or non-photo identification is accepted.
Like any law, voter identification requirements change from state to state. For instance, in states where illegal immigration is more pressing, voting rules might become more stringent.
These identification requirements aimed at preventing voter impersonation can often "disproportionately affect low-income people and students," said Sarah Stevenson, the assistant policy director for the Committee of Seventy, a non-partisan organization that oversees Philadelphia government.
Over the past four years, voting precincts have been expanded throughout Penn's campus to ease the pressure during elections.
"[Elections] go much more smoothly now," said College senior Joe Gross, the vice president of Penn Democrats. "The campus used to have just one polling place, but [student groups] worked hard to improve access."
