Student ID cards are getting a slight makeover to prepare Penn State voters for the Nov. 6 presidential election.
The new voter ID law, passed this spring, requires all voters to present acceptable photo identification that displays a valid expiration date.
Penn State ID cards have not included expiration dates until now. All cards issued after May 6 this year — which would include students who attended summer orientation — are printed with expiration dates, said Joel Weidner, campus director of information systems for Auxiliary and Business Services.
For other students, Weidner’s department has ordered expiration date stickers that he said will arrive in mid-September. At that time, information will be published about how to get a sticker.
“We’ll publish information for students who do not have another acceptable form of ID,” Weidner said.
Those other forms of ID are:
• photo IDs issued by the U.S. government or commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
• Pennsylvania driver’s license or nondriver’s license photo ID.
• valid U.S. passport.
• U.S. military ID.
• employee photo ID issued by federal, Pennsylvania state, county or municipal governments.
• photo ID issued by a Pennsylvania nursing home or other personal care home.
Before students arrive at their polling places, they must be registered to vote.
For those not yet registered, forms are available online at www.co.centre.pa.us/elections.
Students who are already registered can remain so at their home address and vote with an absentee ballot, or register at their school address.
If students change their registration and live in Pennsylvania, county officials likely will see that and can make the switch. However, for out-of-state students, officials recommend they notify their home elections office before registering in Centre County.
Tisha Stefanko, a clerk in the Centre County Elections and Voter Registration Office, said issues can arise when students register here; often the move inadvertently impacts something at home.
“Sometimes parents call that aren’t happy because it can affect insurance,” she said. “If a student calls, I say double-check with your parents.”
For those living on or near campus, University Park polling places in the HUB-Robeson Center include State College East 1, East 2, East 4, and West Central 1. Those are precincts 24, 25, 27 and 33, respectively.
Voter registration cards identify polling places, and an online locator is available at www.co.centre.pa.us/elections.
