Why Maine college students should vote | Letter
A letter to the editor making the rounds in central Maine this week is reigniting a debate about student voting power and the reach of Maine’s upcoming elections.
Emanuel Pariser, a Waterville resident, contributed the response on September 13 to the Portland Press Herald, weeks after Cleo Rehkopf, a philosophy major at a Maine university, published an op-ed in the Sunday Telegram urging out-of-state classmates to stay away from the polls. Rehkopf’s piece framed the argument as a matter of local election integrity, asking students not to meddle in community races unless they intended to put down permanent roots.
Pariser said he found merit in the original writing, even as he took issue with its central premise. In his own letter, he offered a different pathway: rather than discouraging participation outright, he suggested Rehkopf could have guided students toward specific candidates whose races, in his assessment, carry weight far beyond state lines. He named Senate President Troy Jackson, Secretary of State Matt Dunlap, and Congresswoman Chellie Pingree as examples, noting that their elections have national ramifications that will shape the future for young Mainers.
The letter goes further, connecting the local contest to the broader national stage. Pariser argued that a blanket discouragement of student voting may have missed a critical opening to push back against the political direction of former President Donald Trump and his administration’s policies, which he views as detrimental to the country’s long-term trajectory.
At the close of his note, Pariser took a more permissive tone, stating simply that students should vote wherever their conscience leads them—whether that’s in their hometowns or the communities where they spend their college years.
The exchange, both pieces tagged under the paper’s letter-to-editor forum, highlights a friction point playing out on campuses across the state. On one side, there’s concern about the impact of transient populations on local issues; on the other, a belief that young voters should have a say in races that affect their futures, especially when the contest carries implications for national policy. As Maine’s next election cycle approaches, the question of who votes—and where—remains very much up for discussion.
