THis is another one of those, 'how could you even consider doing this' things.

I don't know. There's a lot of complexity to the concept of "residency," as I can attest to from my experience suing the state for in-state-resident tuition classification in college.

One thought is that there's scam where someone finds a vacant house and registers to vote at that address. It would be easy to do a drive-by mail check from time to time to pick up the precinct card, but honestly, you don't really even need those to vote. Foreclosed homes might be at greater risk for that, so it might warrant additional scrutiny.

In Georgia (where I am), you're likely not going to be denied a vote no matter how obscure your problem is. Instead, they would take a "provisional ballot," which lets you cast your vote, subject to them clearing up whatever the confusion is. If the election is close enough that the provisional ballots matter, they will investigate each of them to determine if they were eligible, and if so, count the vote.

There's a lot of confusion that can happen on election day. I've had so much trouble that I had to have the police come and help me vote!

Another residency issue is "what happens if I'm a sojourner and live in more than one place?" If I have a home in Atlanta and a home in Nashville, obviously I should not be able to vote twice for the President of the United States, but shouldn't I be allowed to vote for the Tax Commissioner in each of the places I'm subject to property tax? If I'm a student, and I'm away from school part of the year, where do I get to vote?

It gets complicated in a hurry, and I'm not sure there's an easy answer that I like.

CypherGhost wrote:

THis is another one of those, 'how could you even consider doing this' things.

I don't know. There's a lot of complexity to the concept of "residency," as I can attest to from my experience suing the state for in-state-resident tuition classification in college.

One thought is that there's scam where someone finds a vacant house and registers to vote at that address. It would be easy to do a drive-by mail check from time to time to pick up the precinct card, but honestly, you don't really even need those to vote. Foreclosed homes might be at greater risk for that, so it might warrant additional scrutiny.

That would be voter fraud, and actual incidence over the last few cycles has been statistically insignificant. For more try here.

In Georgia (where I am), you're likely not going to be denied a vote no matter how obscure your problem is. Instead, they would take a "provisional ballot," which lets you cast your vote, subject to them clearing up whatever the confusion is. If the election is close enough that the provisional ballots matter, they will investigate each of them to determine if they were eligible, and if so, count the vote.

Provisional ballots are shaky. To verify, you have to go in to wherever your voting authority is within a certain time period to contest whatever is was that was at issue. In 2006, nearly a third were tossed.

There's a lot of confusion that can happen on election day. I've had so much trouble that I had to have the police come and help me vote!

Another residency issue is "what happens if I'm a sojourner and live in more than one place?" If I have a home in Atlanta and a home in Nashville, obviously I should not be able to vote twice for the President of the United States, but shouldn't I be allowed to vote for the Tax Commissioner in each of the places I'm subject to property tax? If I'm a student, and I'm away from school part of the year, where do I get to vote?

Where do you pay state income tax? That's your location of residence and where you vote. No, you shouldn't be able to vote for commissioner in both places, one is your home, the other is a vacation home, slumlord house, whatever, but is not the residence of record.

It gets complicated in a hurry, and I'm not sure there's an easy answer that I like.

In the case of taking the vote from people losing their homes, that's no good, and in Michigan, doesn't even fly as under state law, the most recent residence at time of registration is still valid even if you've moved.

Provisional ballots are shaky. To verify, you have to go in to wherever your voting authority is within a certain time period to contest whatever is was that was at issue.

Not always. Mine was automatically reviewed by the Board of Elections and a favorable determination of validity was issued before the polls closed.

In 2006, nearly a third were tossed.

While it angers a lot of people, I think most of those were tossed because they would not affect the outcome of the election and therefore there was no sense in spending taxpayer money to validate them. I realize this causes some people (sadly, many service people) to feel their vote wasn't counted, but it doesn't change the math.

Where do you pay state income tax? That's your location of residence and where you vote. No, you shouldn't be able to vote for commissioner in both places, one is your home, the other is a vacation home, slumlord house, whatever, but is not the residence of record.

Well, there is no "record" that your residency is clearly marked on. If there was, it would have negated by needing to sue the Board of Regents for residency classification :)

And if they deny someone the right to vote based on the fact that they are no longer a resident, shouldn't they also give back their taxes? :)

We're getting a little off-track here as your eligibility to vote is predicated on citizenship not being a resident. We tax lots of people who can't vote.

In one year, I was a full time student and didn't have any income, therefore I didn't pay income taxes in any state - yet I should be able to vote.

In another year, I paid state income taxes in three states. In another year, I paid taxes to two states between the voter registration deadline and the election. I have also held multiple state's driver's licenses in one year. For that matter, I legally lived in Kentucky with a Texas driver's license that had a Georgia address. No one would take my cheque :)

Absentee ballots allow a person to vote where they are registered and not live their at all, and quite legally so.