GA Early voting live wait times, with multiple spots right now with waits exceeding 2 hours:
Are Walker and his wife separated? I canāt figure out why it matters that the house is in her name.
ETA: The other stuff I get.
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It doesnāt by itself. She got the property during her last marriage, and post her marriage to Walker they lived in TX and rented the GA property out for many years. It doesnāt appear he ever lived there or even stayed there briefly before running for office.
āOh, another example of the Demās busing in non-Georgians to vote in our stateā¦oh, itās Herschel Walker? Then never mind!ā
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Yesterday set the single day early voting record in GA. The record was broken today.
Is it a federal requirement that a Senator has to live in the state he/she represents though? That wouldnāt be up to the state legislature.
But I assume that Walker can just say āoops, I am too stupid to realize that Iām not eligible for the Texas residency credit, my bad Texas, hereās $5,000 (or whatever), it wonāt happen againā and call it a day.
Agree on all counts.
Then, they can ask where lived when he registered to vote and when he applied to be on the ballot.
Sure. I think thereās several different things going on and thereās a risk of talking past one another.
Where a rich person with multiple homes āresidesā becomes a philosophical question at some point. See: Cheney, Dick; Clinton, Hillary; Romney, Mitt; Trump, Donald for a few well-known examples. That said, you canāt legally be a resident of more than one place at a time. You have to pick one. And if youāre truly moving around a lot you have a lot of leeway to pick whichever one you want and switch it as often as you want. Itās not quite anything goes, but honestly, itās pretty close so long as you donāt double dip and you use the correct cover sheet on all TPS reports and you have some sort of slightly reasonable basis for the state youāre claiming you live in.
So one issue isā¦ if Walker chose Georgia and took the Texas resident deduction on his property taxes improperly then he owes Texas some back taxes probably plus interest and maybe plus a penalty. I assume heās rich enough that he could cover that easily.
Another issue is: does he actually meet the Georgia residency requirements? Did he when he registered to vote? You have to list an address, I assume. What address did he list and was that home rented to a stranger when he registered to vote.
If he was, say, renting to his kid and then the kid was moving out and he moved in and they overlapped by a couple weeks thatās probably ok. But if he was renting to a random stranger then itās unlikely he was crashing on the guyās sofa. But if the guy was moving out on, say, October 31 and Walker was going to move in on November 1 and you have to be registered at least 30 days before the electionā¦ maybe thatās ok?!?! Iām honestly not sure.
So thereās all sorts of possibilitiesā¦ some are perfectly fine, some are definitely not fine, some are perhaps iffy.
I donāt know how it works for people moving close to Election Day nor any potential differences in requirements for voting in a state be running for office in the state.
I think I read somewhere that for the purpose of state office GA defines a non-resident as someone who claimed a homestead exemption in another state. By the law he is a non resident.
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I find it inconceivable that that is how GA defines a non-resident. It is conceivable that GA laws says anyone who claimed a homestead exemption in another state is a non-resident. (i.e. one condition deciding resident vs non-resident, but no way it is the only condition. For example there must be a way of determining whether someone who does not own property anywhere is a resident.)
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I posted a link to the relevant GA code section above. There are multiple reasons in the code why Walker may not have qualified as a resident, but section 14 seems pretty clear:
āThe specific address in the county or municipality in which a person has declared a homestead exemption, if a homestead exemption has been claimed, shall be deemed the personās residence address;ā
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I see ācounty or municipalityā, not ācounty or municipality or stateā. I expect the intent of the drafters was to get the correct location for voting for city and county offices, not to determine state residency.
But, IANA SC justice. I see an āintentā vs. ātextā argument. I think that Walker skates by on the issue of whether the TX property tax alone makes him a non-resident.
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Agree with this.
The other thing is when you move, how long before you are a resident of the new state? How long before you can run for Congress there?
If I move from NYC to LA on October 31, where am I supposed to vote in November?
And for that question, letās assume thereās no ambiguity. I sold my place in NYC, bought a place in LA, got a new job in LA, hired movers to move all my stuff to LA, started work on 11/1 in LA, nothing is left behind in NYC, etc.
In IL, you must be a resident for 30 days before you can register to vote, I suppose to avoid āelection-hoppingā.
And, of course, you must be a resident to vote. That means there is a 30 day window in which you canāt vote anywhere. Youāre a resident of IL, so not eligible elsewhere, but not yet able to vote in IL.
That seems like it should never be the case (which is notably different from saying that it is never the case). I should always be allowed to vote somewhere IMO. Either my old residence or my new.
And really, it sounds like itās a longer window than 30 days. Most places donāt you have to register 30 days before the election? So thereās a 60 day window where you canāt vote, right?
I was wondering about that, but decided it was likely OK. Presumably the new state should be allowed whatever rules it wants for its election (even if it includes some federal elections, even if it were exclusively federal. In any case, IL voters are only voting from representatives, senators or electors for IL, no truly national elections). Similarly the old state should be allowed to say that only residents can vote; maybe all states do say that.
Any state should be able to say you canāt vote in both its election and another stateās. Perhaps most or all do. Maybe thereās some possible ambiguity in the case of primaries on different dates.
As a practical matter, if you are still registered in old state, you likely can vote there.
Probably, but isnāt āsame day registrationā becoming more popular, at least in some jurisdictions?
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