Posted on 10/21/2020 6:55:18 AM PDT by billorites
In a dispute that parallels court cases decided earlier this year about voter residency, the New Hampshire Republican State Committee asked the Attorney General's Office to block college students learning remotely from voting in New Hampshire, while progressive groups and the ACLU want New Hampshire students to vote here.
The central question: Where do college students really live?
The Republicans' letter argues students' stake in political life here is less than other voters, arguments similar to the ones the party and Secretary of State Bill Gardner made when arguing over voter residency laws passed in 2018.
If a student is taking classes online, but is not physically in New Hampshire this semester, the Republican State Committee argues in a letter to the Attorney General's Office, he or she should not be allowed to use an absentee ballot to vote here — even if the student was already registered in his or her college town.
If students aren't in town this semester, the letter argues, they do not have current addresses in New Hampshire.
The American Civil Liberties Union of New Hampshire countered the Republicans' letter earlier this week, writing that being away from a voting address in New Hampshire doesn't cause a person to lose his or her right to vote here.
"College students in New Hampshire are explicitly permitted to vote in the state if they are domiciled here, which is determined on a case-by-case basis,” said Henry Klementowicz, staff attorney at the ACLU of New Hampshire, said in a statement.
College students can vote in New Hampshire, the ACLU's letter said, though that right seems to come under fire every few years.
Moreover, Klementowicz said, college students have already returned absentee ballots.
Covid has the potential to cut down on the college vote.
Easy solution. Let them vote in both places. /Dem-mode
They need to register and vote from where they live, at home. They don’t live on the college campus, they might like to, but they don’t. To register to vote from a college campus they do not live at is ludicrous. I am surprised it’s taking this long to start wondering about college students in their voting this fall. They won’t be voting from liberal college towns, and I’m not surprised that communities are trying to maintain their lock on these communities why registering fictional residence.
Once again, the Anti-Christian Legal Association is pushing for this.
Allowing college students to vote at college is just asking for double votes. Clearly, a kid from NJ who attends college in NY can register and vote in NJ — they live there, right? And hey, the kid can register at college too, right??
If the kid can’t get home, request an absentee ballot for NJ. That’s why those exist.
You should vote in the state where you primarily live, as stated on your IRS forms.
Yes, that's exactly what they want, and what has probably been going on for years.
Legal definition of residence:
2 a : the place where one actually lives as distinguished from a domicile or place of temporary sojourn [a person can have more than one but only one domicile] NOTE: A distinction is usually maintained between domicile and residence based on the relative permanency of a domicile and the intent to make it a principal place of abode. In some contexts, however, such as for determining proper venue domicile and residence are used as synonyms. Similarly residence and domicile are sometimes used as synonyms with regard to the place of incorporation of a business.
If, on election day, you do not actually RESIDE on the college campus, then you cannot claim it as your residence.
Quick test: is the student CURRENTLY PAYING RENT on their college dorm, while home? If not, then it cannot be considered his residence.
that is exactly what they will do this year, and have done every year since.
The only reason we allow them to vote here is because they live here. ie they are residents. To prove residency you need to bring a recent bill (utility or tax) from a local address with you when you register. If they are not living in state, they CAN’T register!!!!
This stuff isn’t difficult. Even if everything was normal and the kids were on campus, why would they be allowed to vote there? Unless they legally moved their residence there (Change of Address with PO, Driver’s License, etc), then they shouldn’t be allowed to vote there. And if they did do all of that, then they certainly shouldn’t be allowed to vote back “home”.
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