* Voter residency requirements

There is still time

I have been getting many questions lately about voting requirements coincidentally this was sent to me recently by a reader .

The Supreme Court decided in 1972 that lengthy requirements for voting in state and local elections were generally unconstitutional, and suggested that 30 days a year was an ample period of residency. Most of the states have changed or eliminated their durational residency requirements to comply with the ruling.

New York has a 30day residency requirement. That requirement can be satisfied with various kinds of documentation -- including a lease or rental agreement showing a local address, a utility bill in your name with a local address, or a deed to a residence at a local address. I believe that even a boat slip rental contract for 30 days or more would acceptable and probably without a challenge.

The common misconception is to equate "residency" with the legal concept of "domicile." A person has only one domicile but can have many residences -- and can pick any one of those residences as the place where he or she will vote. The location of voter registration will usually have little or no consequence in settling a decedent's estate or determining state income tax liability.

Greater (greater than 30 days) residency requirements may apply to tax issues, estate settlement issues and motor vehicle registration, liability insurance and a host of other matters. You can't spend 30 days a year in Florida and decide that you therefore owe no NY state income tax when you spend the other 11 months in Utica. New York will come after you for their tax money if you spend 11 months in Utica and one month somewhere else. But voter eligibility is not the same thing as all those other matters and is not a controlling factor in making determinations re those other matters.

Florida doesn't care where you register to vote, and neither does New York -- as long as you don't use it as the single basis of a scam to avoid state taxes (on money earned in New York or while a resident of New York) or other obligations.