Registering to vote while moving states (U.S.)

December 14, 2015 12:06 PM

I currently live in the electorally-important State A, but will be moving to the less-important State B before the 2016 Presidential Election. (I am from the electorally-insignificant State C, from which my driver's license is issued, and sometimes use my parents' address there for "permanent address".) Where can I/should I register to vote?

To clarify, I'd like to vote in an impact-ful way, if at all possible. I believe that State A > State B > State C in terms of impact (based on whether I'd be voting against a strong majority and how many electoral votes would actually be at play).

I will be moving to State B in May 2016, so I'll be forced to become a State B resident before the election rolls around. My question boils down to whether I can register now in State A and vote absentee. I have been employed and paying taxes in State A for a few years.

Thanks in advance for enabling my political fussiness!

posted by .holmes to Law & Government (7 answers total)

Best answer: You vote in the state you actually live in at the time if the election --- in this case, State B. Anything else could be considered voter fraud.
posted by easily confused at 12:10 PM on December 14, 2015 [7 favorites]

For students, you vote in the state you consider home. Are you a student?
posted by zippy at 12:30 PM on December 14, 2015 [1 favorite]

I register people to vote and am one of the people maintaining voter rolls in my town. The big thing about absentee voting, besides it being fraud, is that you have to get the ballot delivered to you by mail usually. I'm not sure if they forward absentee ballots, I'd be very surprised if they do. Depending on the size of the town if people know you've moved (and a few months is enough time) then this is its own issue since you will no longer live there. People contemplating fraud like this (and I totally hear you on why it's important, I'm not judging) are one of the reasons electronic voting doesn't take off more, because people somehow trust the mail!

I think if it were me, I'd try to do something else to affect the outcome in State A now while you have the chance and see if that can do more good towards getting your candidate where you would like them. It might help for you to look at polls and see if this is even going to be a close election in State A in the first place. I get that it might be impact-ful to have your candidate win, but it's also quite likely they will win (or lose) with or without your help and that might help make the decision easier.
posted by jessamyn at 12:30 PM on December 14, 2015 [1 favorite]

(also, on second read, I'm not encouraging fraud here. If you're a student, it really has to be the place you consider home, whether that's your school or your parent's place, and not 'I wish I could vote in state X that I'm not actually living in and have no intention of returning to')
posted by zippy at 12:33 PM on December 14, 2015 [1 favorite]

To clarify, I'd like to vote in an impact-ful way, if at all possible.

It isn't. The only way your vote can have any effect on the outcome of the presidential election is if the electoral college is tied but for the state you would be voting in, *and* your single, solitary vote makes or breaks a tie in that state. The joint probability of this happening is almost exactly zero. And this is truly an absolutely knife-edge condition -- if the winner wins by even two votes, nobody's single, solitary vote affected the outcome of the election.

So relax and just vote in State B, or if you're a student and think of State C as home, vote there. If it turns out that you really would have made or broken a tie in State A, you and everyone else can blame me.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 1:10 PM on December 14, 2015 [3 favorites]

I totally get the psychological satisfaction of voting in a swing state (in fact, I will be moving around that same time from a non-swing state to a swing state, woo!). But realistically, in neither case are YOU personally going to be the deciding vote. So, skip the voter fraud and just vote where you are a resident (which, to be clear, is going to be State B). If you want to have an impact, there are lots of ways to volunteer that don't require you to be a resident, like making phone calls, donating money, or even travelling to knock on doors or help with GOTV efforts.
posted by rainbowbrite at 2:15 PM on December 14, 2015

Response by poster: Thanks all for keeping me fraud-free - I wasn't aware of the (in)flexibility of voter registration, though it makes sense now that I think about it.
posted by .holmes at 5:05 PM on December 14, 2015