Game over in Pennsylvania!
Today came two rulings. First, a three-judge court turned down a challenge to the redrawn Pennyslvania Congressional map. Then, a few hours later...
Ursula’s optimization problem
Ursula Kwong-Brown, a composer and multimedia artist, had an optimization problem. She’s spent over 10 years in higher education and often had to move several times a year, and sometimes spent time at home with her parents. She’s registered to vote in more districts than she can count! Where to vote?
Thankfully, it’s legal to be registered to vote in many places as long as you only actually vote once. She teamed up with Jason T. Roff and his team at FirstFactory.com to generate a cool tool: Make My Vote Matter.
This tool takes your hometown address and your school address, then tells you where your vote is more powerful. Do you go to college in Virginia, but your hometown is in Maryland? If you consider Virginia your domicile, depending on where you live you might want to vote there. It’s a great application of some of the same ideas that I show in the Congressional District Finder in the right sidebar.
Try it out!
Topics:
Are you positive about the legality of being registered to vote in multiple districts simultaneously? This is not my understanding. (Different issue than eligibility to vote in multiple districts.)
Yes, positive. https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-voter-fraud_us_588a6800e4b0cef5cf86f723
I am not certain it is so clear cut, see this:
https://www.vote.org/voter-registration-rules/
The act of registering in state N might be seen as surrendering a previous right to vote in state N-1.
For example, in New York to register you must not claim the right to vote elsewhere.
As someone who really wants the Dems to win out, this still makes me uncomfortable. Legal or not, I find it morally questionable to choose where to vote based on electoral competitiveness.
As long as you only VOTE once, it’s okay to be registered in more than one place.
https://p2lawyers.com/blog/2017/11/4/is-it-legal-to-be-registered-to-vote-in-multiple-states
Declaring “domicile” has everything to do with intent, which during one’s college years is almost always in flux. Generally, a valid case can be made for either home or school.