In other words, ‘there’s residency and then there’s residency.’
@romanigypsyeyes any word from friends that MSU is broadcasting some correction to students?
Residency for in-state tuition is not necessarily based on the student’s state of legal residence, which I think most people understand. Being an eligible voter is based on legal residence.
According to who?
If he didn’t consider himself to be a legal resident of Maine, then he shouldn’t have been registered to vote in Maine. You know emilybee, we can go round and round on this, but the law is clear and I have provided links to official government websites that explain this. The fact is, your son, like thousands of other college students in Maine and other states, didn’t comply with the law. Is it a big deal? In most cases, probably not. But to continue to argue that your son was legally allowed to vote in Maine while claiming to be a legal resident of New York is nonsensical.
I think you will find that his license in NY is only valid while he is a resident of the state. Just because it has an expiration date 5 or 10 years down the road doesn’t mean events can’t occur that invalidate that outside date. He could move (which he did), he could lose it because of bad driving, he could lose it for criminal reasons. He’s now declared he’s a resident of MA and the laws of MA require him to have a MA license (and probably so does the insurance company. Mine required me to get an instate license within 45 days).
If he registered to vote in Maine, he wasn’t an OOS resident anymore, for taxes or many other purposes. By registering to vote he declared himself a state resident. Non-residents can’t vote. That’s the law.
LF, not that I’ve seen. I’m part of #CripTheVote though and they’ve seemed to be doing very well this morning at msu getting students with disabilities to the polls.
I’m taking my extra wheelchair to someone at U of M who can’t stand in the line for much longer and the lines out here are extremely long.
Im not going to debate this anymore.
He voted in Maine as was his right as a student at a Maine college.
He filed taxes in Maine as an out of state resident.
Many OOS students, with OOS driver’s licenses, are going to go to the polls today in Maine and vote. Many have cars, too.
I think the bold and underlined ‘information’ on the Maine flyers was meant to make people stay away from voting, and that is not right. However, I do think people should be informed as to the law, as I was when I registered. The registration page said the exact same thing without the bolded and underlined ‘information’, that I was declaring myself a resident of the state, needed to obtain a state driver’s license if I intend to drive, register any vehicles I own, and file taxes as a resident.
Emilybee,
There is nothing to debate. Those students who register to vote in Maine have declared themselves to be Maine residents. They have a certain period in order to comply with the other requirements or else they are breaking the law.
Can you just admit that?
" I have provided links to official government websites that explain this"
And so have some of us, including the same site, showing that there is a loose connection. College students may vote.
“However, whether an individual obtains a Maine driver’s license or not has no impact on your ability to exercise your right to vote,” said Dunlap in a written statement."
We can analyze this to death. Or accept that the state isn’t hunting down kids later, to show they got their DLs or etc.
Just because people are doing these things doesn’t mean that they are fully complying with the law. You keep saying that your son did these things, and that many other people do, too. And I keep telling you that yes, I understand. But the fact that these things happen doesn’t mean that all of the laws regarding residency are being followed.
To review, this is from the website of Maine’s Secretary of State, Matthew Dunlap:
You should be aware that if you register to vote in Maine, you will be deemed to have declared residency in Maine…
Yes, your son had the right as a student at a Maine college to vote in Maine. Nobody is disputing that. But in doing so, he was declaring that Maine was now his legal residence (see the words in italics immediately above). With the rights of Maine residency also come the obligations. You can’t have one without the other.
Of course they can. How many times do I have to say that this is not the issue? We want college kids to vote. I want college kids to vote. But registering to vote in a new state, or for the first time in a state that you have not previously considered to be your home, carries with it more implications then simply where you cast your ballot or what races or issues you can have a say in.
Great, come to Maine from another state to go to college or for any other reason. Get involved in local politics, make your voice heard. Maine is one of (if not the) oldest state in the nation by age of its population. It needs young people, for any number of reasons. But registering to vote in Maine means declaring residency in Maine. This should be indisputable. And with residency comes certain obligations, like having a Maine driver’s license if you want to drive, and if you pay state income taxes doing it as a Maine resident.
A loose connection between what? Registering to vote in Maine and being a Maine resident? I don’t see how the language from the website could be any clearer.
You should be aware that if you register to vote in Maine, you will be deemed to have declared residency in Maine…
You can’t take one sentence from that and ignore what follows.
They declare “residency” for the purpose of voting. I can see the difference. I see it is allowed, for college student voting. College students. If I move there (tempted, for lots of good reasons,) I fully expect to get a DL and do the rest.
@BelknapPoint Bottom line is this: If the flyers were distributed at the beginning of the semester, one could reasonably argue that they were for “informational” purposes. HOWEVER, when the flyers are distributed the weekend before election day - at a time when the students can no longer add/change a voter registration - it becomes very, very obvious that the intent is to intimidate voters. That is against the U.S. Constitution, which trumps any state law. Jim Crow laws were once legal in Southern states, too. Doesn’t change their intent.
And what, specifically, are you referring to that follows? There is no such thing as a being a resident of a state for “only” the purpose of voting. There is no special exception for college students. All residents are treated equally, and all have the same rights and obligations.
People – I am not defending the fliers that were left on the Bates campus. They were clearly an attempt to suppress or intimidate the student vote. The logic behind doing this is abhorrent and should be condemned. Go back and read all of my posts in this thread. My only purpose here is to point out that A) registering to vote in Maine is a declaration that the registrant is a Maine resident, and B) becoming a resident of Maine carries obligations that have nothing to do with voting.
I don’t see anyone defending the fliers at at this time. But many people seem to be shooting the messenger here.
Actually, this is not true. Maine fortunately allows same-day voter registration, so a college student in Maine who is from another state could very easily go to any poll location in Maine today and register to vote and then vote. I am all for this… but that student should be aware that in so doing, he/she is declaring themselves to now be a Maine resident, which carries with it certain obligations, which have been previously discussed.
Post 38
“Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap said registering to vote in Maine sets an “expectation that you obtain a Maine driver’s license and do other public business as a Maine resident.” Fine, sets the basic expectation, not different from other states. But continues:
“However, whether an individual obtains a Maine driver’s license or not has no impact on your ability to exercise your right to vote,” said Dunlap in a written statement. “There is no statutory connectivity between motor vehicle law and election law, and no one should be deterred from voting because of other aspects of residency found in other titles of Maine law.”