There is no set period. Indefinitely means just that: I plan to stay here until my plans change, but for right now, I have no intention of leaving. It doesn’t mean that you have a definite plan to stay until you die, but you plan on staying, well, indefinitely.
However if I plan to stay for a day, a week, a month, or any set period of time, then I do not become a resident of that other state. If I go to Pittsburgh to watch a Pens game and stay at a hotel for the night, I do not become a Pennsylvania resident for that night.
Likewise, if I go to Pittsburgh, and stay in a hotel tonight with plans to vote early tomorrow and then drive to New York the following day to vote there, I would be committing false swearing by signing the voter registration application in Pennsylvania if I had to swear I was a PA resident.
To your example, if I moved to PA for a job offer, stayed in a hotel the night before my first day of work with the intention of renting an apartment the following week, but my first day on the job I got fired and then headed to New York the next day in search of work, then I was indeed a PA resident for that one night because I stayed there with the intention of remaining indefinitely
Some of you may be able to remember when Maine voted 6 weeks before anyone else (usually the last Tuesday in Sept.). As far as I know you could have voted legally in Maine and then moved to another state and voted there. Whether it would have been legal is a different question.
It’s legal. It’s not uncommon, for example in 2016 I knew a person who voted in the Iowa caucuses and then took a job in D.C. and was able to vote in the D.C. primary which was the latest one in 2016.
IANAL so I wonder how much legal wiggle room there is in the fact that you can’t vote in the same election in different states. In presidential primaries you are voting for delegates. In presidential generals you are voting for electors.
If you qualify to vote in a second state in the cycle, it will be a different election.
There is no “you can’t vote in the same election in different states” rule because that term is an oxymoron. There is no same election in different states. All elections are state elections; there are no national U.S. elections.
If I vote in the general election for Sanders in Oregon I am voting on the question of “What slate of electors shall represent Oregon in the electoral college?” If I vote in the same general election in California for Trump (or Sanders again), I am voting on the question of “What slate of electors shall represent California in the electoral college?” Different elections and different questions.
The only possible point of illegality would be if I voted while not a resident of a particular state.
One need only reside in an early-voting state long enough to vote and move on. The limiting factor is a state’s residency requirement. Have we any instant-resident states? What’s the briefest period needed to establish residency for voting (or tax) purposes?
Suppose you own a summer and winter home (don’t I wish) in two different states and you intend to keep using them both. Does that make you a resident of both states? Could you vote early in FL (assuming they allow it) then move back to your Ohio home and vote there on election day?
It appears that you can be a resident of more than one state at a time in some cases, although you likely end up having to pay more taxes to do so, so I can’t imagine it makes sense for anyone to do so with the aim of voting twice.
Many states have early voting, so the contest is not “on the same day” as it lasts for a week or more.
As I said above, if you are intending to “vote and move on” then you are not a resident of the new state. You must have the present intention to remain indefinitely.
You may have a domicile in more than one state, but you can only be a resident of a single state. Remember recently when Trump decided to change his residency from New York to Florida? Even though Trump owns a house, real estate, golf courses, and a bunch of other stuff in Florida, the NY authorities are trying to claim that it is just a sham so as not to have to pay NY income tax.
I won’t hijack the thread to wade into that debate, but it illustrates that you may have only one state of residency, and if there is a dispute, what will determine the outcome is your intent to remain indefinitely. And the issue of proof in Trump’s case is that it was indisputable that he was previously a NY resident. So what steps has he taken to show that he intends to leave NY and remain in FL indefinitely, as opposed to just being domiciled in both places?
But that will depend on the residency rules of each state. As you suggest, the well known effect of residency rules is on tax (“tax residency”), but actually, countries like mine have different sets of rules for tax-residency, medical-benefits residency, deportation-residency and voting residency. You can be in or out of some but not all, and they can overlap with other countries.
Montana has a law that anyone who’s a resident of the state for any purpose is a resident of the state for all purposes. They also have a much longer and more convoluted process for becoming a resident for purposes of in-state tuition than for any other purpose. I’ve never seen a reconciliation of those two facts.
Not true, at least for some purposes. The Feds recognize that a person can be a resident of more than one state, at least for the purpose of purchasing firearms.
The 4473, a form used for the NICS background check, details proof of residence.
From the 4473, page 4:
If the transferee/buyer has two States of residence, the transferee/buyer should list his/her current residence address in response to question 2 (e.g., if the transferee/buyer is purchasing a firearm while staying at his/her weekend home in State X, he/she should list the address in State X in response to question 2).
From the 4473, Page 5:
For example, if the transferee/buyer has two States of residence and is trying to buy a handgun in State X, he may provide a driver’s license (showing his name, date of birth, and photograph) issued by State Y and another government-issued document (such as a tax document) from State X showing his residence address. A valid electronic document from a government website may be used as supplemental documentation provided it contains the transferee’s/buyer’s name and current residence address.
This doesn’t specifically pertain to voting, but indicates that, at least for some purposes a person can be a resident of multiple states.
Besides which, if each state sets its own rules for what counts as residency, then it’s entirely possible for states to have definitions that are compatible with each other. In practice, I suspect that most states’ definitions include “…and not being a resident of any other state”, or the like… but I wouldn’t want to bet that all 50 do.