Opinion Board | Be informed or die

Today is the last day you can register to vote before the meaningless mayoral election in November. We're all for voting and fulfilling your civic responsibility. Considering we're supposed to be enlightened, engaged citizens, Penn's past voter-participation rates in past elections have been embarrassing.

So, it seems pretty simple: Register to vote. Or as someone smarter than us once put it, "Vote or die!"

But you may want to think twice before you register to vote in Pennsylvania and pat yourself on the back.

While most states do allow for dual residency, switching your voter registration to Pennsylvania will cause you to lose your registration in many other states, such as South Carolina, Arkansas and Iowa. That means that while your vote may count in the Keystone state, you'll no longer have the option of voting in your home state, which is often the more accurate representation of your true residency. After all, most of us are only in Philly for four years. And while it's tempting to have your vote count for "more" in the perennial swing state of Pennsylvania, there's something decidedly unseemly about casting your vote based on where it matters "most."

And in some states you could lose more than just your voter registration. Registering in Pennsylvania will cause you to lose your residency in Maine, for example, which could have any number of adverse consequences.

So research the laws from your own state and make an informed decision about whether you truly would like to be considered a voting resident of Pennsylvania. And if you don't vote in Philly, don't fret.

You won't die, we promise.

Editorial | Follow Up

On Sept. 26, we wrote an editorial blasting Facilities and Real Estate Services for their inexplicably new and laughably bad maintenance request Web site, FacilityFocus.

The next day, Facilities sent out an email to random students requesting that they participate in focus groups to improve the Web site. Facilities scheduled seven groups and offered incentives to encourage attendance.

Kudos to Facilities (Aramark: take note) for so quickly taking action and responding to student complaints - a nice change for Penn students.

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