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.

RE: Lose your House, Lose your vote