# State citizenship **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 3, 2016, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/state-citizenship/758985 "2016-07-03T06:12:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2016, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/state-citizenship/758985/21 "2016-07-07T18:00:37Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > No, one must be a state _resident_. Can you point to any language in any state’s constitution or laws that requires state citizenship to vote, uses the term state citizen, or defines what a state citizen is and isn’t? You need to be both a state resident and a US citizen to vote in one of the states of he US. Just being a state resident is not enough: if it were, I would have been able t vote in Ohio for 12 years. Since the 14th Amendment says that combination of being a state resident and a US citizen makes you a state citizen, then that is effectively the qualification, even if state constitutions and laws don’t use the terminology “state citizen”. ---
**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2016, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/state-citizenship/758985/22 "2016-07-07T18:54:53Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > No, one must be a state _resident_. Can you point to any language in any state’s constitution or laws that requires state citizenship to vote, uses the term state citizen, or defines what a state citizen is and isn’t? > [@Giles](#): > > You need to be both a state resident and a US citizen to vote in one of the states of he US. Just being a state resident is not enough: if it were, I would have been able t vote in Ohio for 12 years. > > Since the 14th Amendment says that combination of being a state resident and a US citizen makes you a state citizen, then that is effectively the qualification, even if state constitutions and laws don’t use the terminology “state citizen”. I agree. The only two terms that I have ever heard (as regarding voting rights, for example) is “U.S. citizen” and “state resident.” For what its worth, I was a U.S. citizen and a resident of the State of Texas when I joined the U.S. Navy years ago. The [Servicemembers Civil Relief Act](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Servicemembers_Civil_Relief_Act) states that servicemembers and their spouses do not gain or lose a domicile based on their presence or lack thereof in any U.S. jurisdiction solely on the basis of military orders, including for purposes of taxation and for voting. So even though I was subsequently stationed in Florida, New York, Connecticut, and Rhode Island, I maintained legal Texas state residency throughout. I had Texas license plates on my vehicles, a Texas driver’s license (with a Rhode Island home address on the license!), voted by absentee ballot in Texas, and was not subject to state income taxes. (Texas has no state income tax.) If my son had gone to a public university in Texas, he would have been eligible for in-state tuition. All that said, within so many days of separating from the military, I was required to switch everything to my actual state of residence, as if I had just moved there. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2016, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/state-citizenship/758985/23 "2016-07-07T19:52:25Z")
> [@Giles](#): > > You need to be both a state resident and a US citizen to vote in one of the states of he US. This hasn’t always been true. [Non-citizen suffrage in the United States - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_of_foreigners_to_vote_in_the_United_States) ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2016, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/state-citizenship/758985/24 "2016-07-07T21:12:58Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > This hasn’t always been true. [Non-citizen suffrage in the United States - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_of_foreigners_to_vote_in_the_United_States) As that link shows, it isn’t true everywhere now for local elections. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2016, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/state-citizenship/758985/25 "2016-07-08T00:37:17Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > State colleges can have different fees for residents versus non-residents. Their residency requirements are defined. I remember friends who wanted to go to college in California as residents (due to the very low cost and very good schools), scheming to fit the residency requirements at the time. > > Residency /= citizenship however. > [@Lord\_Feldon](#): > > This is one of the only exceptions, though. In pretty much everything else (maybe actually everything else), a state has to treat citizens equally starting the second they take up residence. For example, it used to be common for there to be long waiting periods for voter registration (a year or more), but those laws were struck down on the grounds that they violated the right of people to move from state to state and become citizens. In the three states I’ve lived in as an adult – Texas, New Mexico and Hawaii – the requirement for purposes of college tuition was the same, so I think it must be common nationwide. That is, the student must have lived in the state for at least one year prior to enrollment to qualify for in-state tuition. Otherwise, yeah, you’re pretty much a resident once you establish a domicile. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2016, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/state-citizenship/758985/26 "2016-07-08T22:48:37Z")
Voter registration rules vary some, with regard to time living in the state before registering, and time between registering and voting. Some states even have registration on election day. Time of residence may affect eligibility to run for some offices. If there are any rules regarding birth in the state in question, I’m not aware of them. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2016, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/state-citizenship/758985/27 "2016-07-08T22:58:13Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > …It’s just a remnant of the concept of the US as a group of individual sovereign states only voluntarily united. And yet that unworkable concept will just not die. And yet it allows for regional differences with minimal conflict. _Vive la différence!_ ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2016, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/state-citizenship/758985/28 "2016-07-15T00:06:25Z")
> [@AskNott](#): > > If there are any rules regarding birth in the state in question, I’m not aware of them. Used to be you could get some sort of special Texas license plate if you were native born. Or maybe it was a license-plate frame, one or the other. I was born elsewhere and so never qualified, although I don’t think I missed much. ---
**Author:** ![lance\_strongarm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/87869e/32.png) [@lance\_strongarm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lance_strongarm)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2016, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/state-citizenship/758985/29 "2016-07-15T19:04:46Z")
> [@Giles](#): > > You need to be both a state resident and a US citizen to vote in one of the states of he US. Just being a state resident is not enough: if it were, I would have been able t vote in Ohio for 12 years. And sometimes “resident” doesn’t mean you live there at the time you are voting, for instance, college students or members of the militlary may vote in their home states. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/state-citizenship/758985.md?page=1)