Voter Registration and State Residency

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riceman04

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So I decided to be an idiot this past weekend and register to voter here in Pennsylvania. The problem is that I am (or at least think I still am) a Cali resident. Will registering to vote in PA automatically cause me to lose my Cali residency status?

I still have a:
1. Ca DL
2. Permanent Address in Cali (my rents house)


I am working full time right now in PA.

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does anyone know?

if not it's all good?
 
Every state is different and has its own rules for determining residency.

Me for instance - I am a NC resident but attend college in Iowa. I hold a bank account in Iowa which ECU asked about on my transfer application, so when they admitted me for Spring transfer they marked me as OOS. Whereas UNCC marked me as in-state --- little different than your situation, but you get the point I think.

I would look up guidelines for Penn. residency or maybe email the department in California and see if you've violated your residency.


Typically, voting registration isn't enough in itself to declare residency anyway, so you should be fine.
 
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You might have a problem, because, in order to vote in a particular, jurisdiction, you must be a resident of that jurisdiction. The correct thing to have done to completely maintain your CA residency was to register to vote in CA and vote by absentee ballot.

Here in TX there is a residency questionaire that you need to fill out as part of the application process. It has all of the criteria for qualifying as a resident clearly spelled out. I'd suggest that you track down a similar questionaire for CA and see if you still qualify for CA residency.
 
Xypathos, do you know anything else about becoming an NC resident for tuition? I was born and grew up here, but we moved away when I was a 10 or so. I moved back here (for good) the first week of January '06 and have a NC drivers license, vehicle registered here, bank account, registered to vote, all belongings here, etc, but I haven't had a job here (lived off of savings) and when I went back to visit family in Indiana (4 times) I worked for my dad's company to pay for the trip and to have a little extra. Since you seem to have a little bit of experience in this area, do you have an idea of how this might look to UNC or NC State?
 
You might have a problem, because, in order to vote in a particular, jurisdiction, you must be a resident of that jurisdiction. The correct thing to have done to completely maintain your CA residency was to register to vote in CA and vote by absentee ballot.

Here in TX there is a residency questionaire that you need to fill out as part of the application process. It has all of the criteria for qualifying as a resident clearly spelled out. I'd suggest that you track down a similar questionaire for CA and see if you still qualify for CA residency.

Thanks for the info. I am already registered to vote in Cali too!:eek: :eek:
 
Xypathos, do you know anything else about becoming an NC resident for tuition? I was born and grew up here, but we moved away when I was a 10 or so. I moved back here (for good) the first week of January '06 and have a NC drivers license, vehicle registered here, bank account, registered to vote, all belongings here, etc, but I haven't had a job here (lived off of savings) and when I went back to visit family in Indiana (4 times) I worked for my dad's company to pay for the trip and to have a little extra. Since you seem to have a little bit of experience in this area, do you have an idea of how this might look to UNC or NC State?

I honestly don't know in your case. NC preference is 1 year, which you almost meet but not exactly. You were also here for the first 10 years of your life.

Were you born here? If so, that'll help.

You do have all of the other requirements though as far as license, vehicle, bank, etc.

Generally speaking, they MAY classify you as OOS but when they do you can request a Residency Classification Form from the college (most include it if they classify you as OOS just in case anyway). You'll fill this out and provide information on yourself such as bank accounts in NC, registered to vote, vehicle registration, if you were born, how long through your entire life have you lived in NC (If you're under 20 that means more than 50% in your case, which will be a huge boost), etc

They also ask if you're still a dependent of your parents and if so, are they living and working in NC --- if they are, odds are they'll classify you as an NC resident automatically. If not, they base their decision on your other information.

What you can do, as I did in my case, is attach a sheet that explains your situation and that you've moved back and have claimed NC as your homestate and have no desire to leave and maintain residency in another state.

It's a long process --- the paperwork in question is like 5-8 pages long and goes over the past 5-10 years of your life. It's a hassle and a pain in the butt but if it works in your favor, it'll save you thousands of dollars.
 
Xypathos, thanks for the detailed reply. It's much appreciated.

I'm 24.6 to be exact, so I haven't lived here for half of my life. However, I will have lived here for 12 months and one day (consecutively) before enrollment to my school so maybe that'll help. The biggest thing I'm worried about is that I haven't had a job this whole time and I worked in Indiana some for my dad. I will have a job next month though, and quite possibly one in a couple of days. It's difficult to talk to advisors about this because I'm 2 hours away from Raleigh and Chapel Hill. Oh well, I guess we'll see how it works out. I'm sweatin' it though.

Edit: Is "enrollment" the day you start class, or the day you register at that college?
 
Thanks for the info. I am already registered to vote in Cali too!:eek: :eek:

The subsequent state registration cancels the first. In short, you may have created a problem for yourself. All schools use slightly different definitions of what is considered an in state resident, so you'd need to check with the school, but most rely on the same handful of indices -- drivers license, tax returns, address, and voter registration and make a determination if you qualified. By registering to vote you are asserting pretty definitively that you consider yourself a resident of that jurisdiction, and so many other states will abide by that assertion.
 
as someone who has dealt with this his whole life, across the board, voting is the single most important factor in determing your state of residence.
 
as someone who has dealt with this his whole life, across the board, voting is the single most important factor in determing your state of residence.

Ok...so how do I fix the problem.
 
Does this mean if we manage to register ourselves to vote in a different state than 'home base', we have to claim residency for said voting state?
 
I think the requirements for state residency are different in different states, and for the final word, you need to check with the individual school. That said, I imagine that it's much more complicated than that. Have you ever completed the residency section of an application for a state school? Jeez. It was intense...down the exact DATE I arrived in my state, date of first driver's license, date I first registered to vote, exact date my car was first registered...
 
I am working full time right now in PA.
This could be interesting. I know for some of the UCs, to be considered a state resident, if you are working full-time, you need to be either working in California or working outside of the state but still paying California state income tax.

This was for undergrad. Maybe medical school will play it differently.
 
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