• Verdant Banana@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    in the US your rights are dependent on which state you reside in 24/7 and you are not allowed to live in more than two states 24/7 so only one state’s rights per person and those rights do not carry over state lines

    Vacation houses and the like do not count unless you register as living there 24/7 which registering requires an ID or driver’s license from where the state gives out licenses (different office and name in different countries mean states)

    this is all because of how fractured the “US” is think fifty different countries all pulling in fifty opposite directions even the states that are in the republican or democrat camps

    the stickiness comes in when a citizen of one state registers as a citizen in another state without giving up the other state’s citizenship thus making a person at least on paper as living in two states simultaneously giving that person the rights of two different states depending on which state they are in and registered also

    for example registering to vote is a state by state thing not connected nation wide and if you are registered as citizen in more than one state you could in theory be registered to vote in more than one state and do so since not really checked nationally only state wide and registering to vote is validating an address

    some state driver’s license/ IDs are slowly being connected nation wide but it is still not a national thing across all “states”

    to wrap this up not able to vote because am living in more than one state 24/7 in order to use the rights of other states when am at my other address - if voted it could be contested and deemed illegal voting which is a felony because being registered in another state is very frowned upon

    so technically could vote legally but it could result in a felony if contested

    would not be an issue if the US had national laws that all states had to abide by and a national playbook that was played on in all states

    • GBU_28@lemm.ee
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      9 months ago

      I’ve never heard of someone splitting residency truly 50/50. I’ve heard of folks needing to spend a very specific amount of days in one of the two homes, as per the laws, to be able to claim their home-address for tax and voting purposes.

      Makes sense that if you are effectively “nomadic” that you don’t really have a claim to be a “citizen” of a state, and lose certain benefits as such.

    • SynnrOP
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      9 months ago

      If you register to vote in the new state, as long as you don’t cast a ballot in the old state, you are fine. A number of people are in your situation. You can vote in your “other” state by absentee ballot*, or your “current” state by registering by the deadline defined in your current state. Extensive article about it here.

      You are legally allowed to have multiple residences in multiple states. All that matters is you follow the rules, which means not voting more than once, and either registering an absentee ballot in the other state or registering in the new state.

      Citizenship is based on country, not state. Unless you left out being a dual national (citizen of another country) I don’t see why you can’t vote.

      * Some states have fickle laws about absentee ballots and it may require you to take a day trip on voting day.