While the polls at Hayden residence hall were packed last Tuesday with hundreds of New Yorkers voting in the Democratic primary, many of the 58 percent of NYU's students who come from out of state laid low.

But even the non-New Yorkers whose home states had elections on Super Tuesday were unlikely to participate, an informal WSN poll of 77 out-of-state students revealed, with many students blaming confusing registration procedures and disinterest in the Democratic nomination process for their failure to rock the vote.

George Parr, a senior at Oberlin College who is spending the semester at NYU, characterized absentee voting as 'a pain in the ass.' For students like Parr, a Georgia native living away from his state of registration, simply determining where they are eligible to vote can be far more difficult than deciding which candidate to support.

Steinhardt School of Education graduate student Irene Shaevich agreed that confusion about voting eligibility was a contributing factor in her failure to show her primary colors. 'I've been from New York to North Carolina, then back to Connecticut, and I was registered in Connecticut,' she said. 'But I don't really know what to do to get registered now.'

NYU politics professor Jonathan Nagler said that fewer college students head to the polls for reasons like those of Parr and Shaevich described. 'Turnout rates among young people are lower than they are among older people,' he said. 'People away from home find it much more difficult to get registered and get an absentee ballot.'

WSN's poll confirmed Nagler's claims, with 62 percent reporting that they did not know how to obtain absentee ballots.

Had he chosen to vote in the primary, Parr said he would have figured out how to secure an absentee ballot from Ohio, where he is registered. But he said he felt that completing the necessary paperwork wasn't worth it in the end because Sen. John Kerry's Ohio victory seemed to be a foregone conclusion.

'It was pretty obvious that Kerry was going to get nominated,' he said.

WSN's poll revealed that although 70 percent of out-of-state students are registered to vote, a mere 30 percent actually got absentee ballots and sent them in or planned to do so.

The poll also revealed that students find absentee voting a hassle. Of the out-of-staters polled, 89 percent said they would be more likely to vote absentee if the process was easier.

But College of Arts and Science freshman Adrienne Smith, who said she plans to vote in the Nebraska primary via absentee ballot, said she had little patience for those who decline to vote absentee on the grounds that doing so is too difficult. 'They piss me off,' she said. 'It's not that hard.'

Zach Stern, a New York-registered CAS freshman from the Upper East Side who decided to vote absentee anyway, said his Super Tuesday voting experience was 'a breeze.'

'It takes about 10 seconds to mail the application in, tops,' he said. 'And postage is already paid.'

And many students do not realize they can circumvent any perceived difficulties of voting absentee by registering to vote as New York residents, submitting their NYU address as their permanent one.

Lee Daghlian, director of public information for the New York State Board of Elections, said the state has tried to make registering in New York as easy as possible for students.

'Before, since students mostly lived in dorms and were considered temporary residents, they were required to vote by absentee ballot,' he said. 'Now the procedures have been liberalized. In most cases, most county commissioners allow students from out of state to register [in New York].'

Daghlian said it's perfectly legal for NYU students who live in other states to register to vote in New York. 'For students who are here for six months of the year and go home to Florida, you can register here or there,' he said.