Legal Commentary

I am excited to be guest blogging this month because it gives me a chance to think and post a bit about voting rights and election law.  I teach a course in State and Local Government Law and we spend a fair amount of time discussing the right to vote in local elections.  My students have some very interesting and provocative ideas about voting reform, which I hope to share in my next several posts. 

But back to me.  As a law student, I wrote a Note, entitled Dual Resident Voting: Traditional Disenfranchisement and Prospects for Change, 102 Colum. L. Rev. 1954 (2002).  Here is the abstract: 

In modern times, a large and growing number of Americans qualify as bona fide residents of two     or more locales. These dual residents are subject to local taxes and ordinances and are profoundly affected by policies that concern their second-home community. Yet, in most states, individuals are prohibited from voting in more than one location through voting statutes that equate residence with domicile. Recently, the Second Circuit upheld a New York election law that prevents second-home owners from voting in both of their residential districts. This Note argues that extending the franchise in local elections to individuals who qualify as bona fide residents of a community, regardless of whether they already qualify to vote in another community, is required under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Such an extension is also supported by normative arguments arising from the democratic tradition of government by the consent of the governed and against taxation without representation.

To be honest, I am not sure that I fully agree with my Equal Protection argument anymore, but I still think that my policy arguments are persuasive.  Currently, a number of states, including Arizona, Colorado, Indiana, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, and Wyoming, offer nonresidents some voting rights in special districts.  Other states, including Tennessee and Colorado, permit local governments to enfranchise nonresidents at their discretion.   If I were to rewrite this piece (or write a follow up), I would probably argue that states should be encouraged to permit localities to enfranchise dual residents at their discretion.  Localities could then decide for themselves whether such residents should be included as part of the local political community.