I just moved back to Texas after living in South Carolina for a few years, where I did vote in the republican primary. After returning to Texas I discovered I had received a new voter’s registration card and I’m still officially on the rolls here despite not having yet taken myself off the registration list in SC.
Would anyone know for sure if there would be anything actually illegal about my showing up to vote in the TX primary today? I still only have a SC driver’s license which is a whole other hurdle I’m sure given the new voter ID laws, but I’d like to figure out the answer to the first question first.
I bet someone at your local Board of Elections can tell you.
In general, you’re a citizen of a state if you’re resident in that state with an intention to remain there indefinitely, although you don’t lose citizenship in your current state of residence because you’re planning to move – not until you actually do. Since the two elections are on different days, it might could be legal, assuming you were legally domiciled in each state as of the date of that statels election. OTOH, you’re voting twice in what is functionally a single election (at least for president), even if technically you’d be casting ballots for electors rather than the guy.
I honestly don’t know the answer, but your best bet is contacting your local Bd of Elections. At the very least, you’ll be able to say you relied on advice from the appropriate state agency.
I did get bounced around to a lot of elections people as nobody seemed to have a definitive answer. The last lady advised against it out of an abundance of caution, which is advice I suppose I’ll take even though I just hate missing elections.
My feeling though is that since primaries are a party function and not a government one I couldn’t really be charged with fraud or anything, especially since both states involved are open primary states. I don’t know how it would affect the equation of I voted in TX in a different party than the one I voted in in SC.
Thanks for the advice though, I’d still love this conventional wisdom against it to be proven wrong before the polls close though.
You only need your registration card to vote in the Texas primary today. No photo ID is required! The photo voter id legislation is not in effect for this election. All you need is:
Your voter registration card; or
A driver’s license or personal identification card issued to you by Texas or another state (even if the license or card has expired); or
A form of identification that contains your photograph and establishes your identity; or
A birth certificate or other document confirming birth that is admissible in a court of law and establishes your identity; or
Your United States citizenship papers; or
Your United States passport; or
Official mail addressed to you by a governmental entity; or
A copy of a current utility bill, bank statement, government check, paycheck, or other government document that shows your name and address.
I’m not clear from the OP whether you re-registered in Texas, or whether the new registration card was a holdover from your previous residence there.
If you re-registered when you moved back, presumably it’s fine, since Texas thought your registration was valid in time for this election. If you were still registered in Texas while you lived (and registered to vote) in SC, then I could imagine that you weren’t actually entitled to be registered to vote prior to the election. Unless, of course, Texas permits same-day registration.
This raises interesting hypotheticals for a general election. For example, suppose I live in a state with early voting, and I can (and do) vote 3 weeks before Election Day. Then, because of some unexpected circumstance, I pack up and move to another state in time to register and vote in person on Election Day. (I have no idea if there are any pairs of states that have deadlines and early voting that make this possible.) Is this voter fraud? What if I only vote for President in one of the jurisdictions?
I suspect that the answer will depend on the specific laws in both of the states. Each state decides its own rules for how it’s going to apportion electoral votes, and there have been serious proposals for states to apportion their electoral votes based on the results of the national popular vote. If enough states sign onto the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, then a voter in a non-compact state could effectively vote for President in both their own state and in all of the compact states, despite not living in any of them. While there are many criticisms of the NPVIC based on practical matters, I haven’t heard anyone argue that it’d be unconstitutional for that reason.
That said, I suspect that the fine print of most states’ voter eligibility laws includes something to the effect of “…and who has not already voted in any other jurisdiction for the same election”. In which case, the first vote would be valid, but the second fraudulent.
