Young voters beware. Register to vote to exercise your democratic rights in the upcoming election, and you may find yourself in dire consequences. At least that's the message registration officials of Virginia, a ‘swing state’, are sending.

An article published in The New York Times yesterday has revealed confusing and unclear state guidelines are turning many first time voters off registering. Conveying ‘punishment’ for students who register at their college using their college address. Virginia’s Internal Revenue Service says that if a student puts their college address as their permanent address, they can no longer claim under their parents tax returns and possibly lose scholarships and coverage under their parents health and car insurance. All this information in fact is published on Virginia’s Board of Election’s website. Fortunately, as The New York Times has shown, this information is incorrect and is simply misleading documents on each state’s registration official’s behalf. Talk about confusing!

I attended the teen panel discussion on political issues at the Overby Center yesterday and was amazed at the level of knowledge these students displayed. They even put some of us to shame! The event was hosted by Justine magazine, with the panel consisted of males and females aged between 16 and 20. The students showed strong opinions on current issues and backed them up with sound facts, proving they are well informed citizens who are genuinely interested and concerned with what is happening politically in the lead up to the Presidential Election. Topics of discussion included foreign affairs, environment, education and the media’s role in campaign coverage.

These students who participate in model UN clubs, Youth Legislative groups, government groups and school newspapers, portray the need, want and desire of American youth to be politically active. The war in Iraq was a hot topic, with a clear consensus that troops should be withdrawn sooner rather than later because the USA can not be, as one student said, the “world police” anymore. So, this often forgotten demographic has shown that teens really do care and are a valuable resource for candidates and voters. I do not want these precious opinions to go un noticed just because of "incorrect" information in a release.

But sadly, as The New York Times article has said, these murky guidelines and red tape are presenting a hurdle for first time voters to register. I agree. It is hard enough to entice young people to vote, but this is just another barrier to registration. We are young, if something seems too hard or like a lot of effort, we aren’t going to do it. If registering to vote is too inconvenient, then first time voters won’t bother.

In 1972, when the voting age was lowered from 21 to 18, 59 per cent of 18-24 year old enrolled to vote, compared to 52 per cent in 2004, the Child Bank Trends website reports. The right to vote is losing its appeal and importance I believe that bureaucratic nonsense and confusing guidelines such as those in Virginia is partially responsible for this. Let’s get things straight from the beginning and then voting and political engagement among young voters won’t seem such a chore.

I hope that the passion and curiosity I saw yesterday at the Justine panel discussion will not go to waste just because of bureaucratic nonsense.