411 Walnut St "residents" ineligible to vote?

Michelle.S wrote:
We use the PassPort America/Good Sam service in Crestview, Florida.
We have no desire or reason to cast votes for their local elections, we just want to vote in National elections where we have an opinion.

The fraud argument would come into play in national elections as well. Florida is a state where razor thin margins determine presidential elections. Texas is going to be solidly Republican and California is in the Democrat corner. Voters on the other side are effectively shut out. But, a group of Texas Democrats or California Republicans could rent a Florida PO box and suddenly their votes would matter. Since people routinely donate thousands to the political candidates of their choice, it isn't far fetched that a hundred or so like minded individuals would share the cost of a PO box, and all one hundred claim the same address for voting purposes. At an actual address this would be spotted, but there can be hundreds upon hundreds of mail boxes and an unlimited number of voters at each one. I am with the election officials, you need more than a PO box to be a legal voter in the jurisdiction.

I just checked, Good Sam has exactly the same setup as SBI so Good Sam mail service users would be in the same boat. That boat being "you can't reside in a mailbox so you can't vote."

A declaration of domicile is a legal filing stating that you intend to reside in the state. Note "state." Domicile involves that plus getting new d/ls, registrations, financial accounts and myriad other things at the new address.

Michelle, where are you voting? Are you a legal resident of Okaloosa County, as in on-the-ground?

Note that I have no horse in this race; it's just an interesting discussion.

johnhicks wrote:
The point is that the SBI customers in question have declared domicile in Clay County and that is their legal address . . .

I can declare myself the king of Spain, but saying so doesn't make it so.

We use the PassPort America/Good Sam service in Crestview, Florida.
We have no desire or reason to cast votes for their local elections, we just want to vote in National elections where we have an opinion.

So they should be disenfranchised?

The point is that the SBI customers in question have declared domicile in Clay County and that is their legal address; they have no other legal address. It is not simply a PO box.

TechWriter wrote:

westernrvparkowner wrote:
It would be way too easy for special interests to hijack the results of local elections if all that is requiredto vote in that election is give the registar a PO box.

Like RVers?

Yes, exactly like RV'ers. In small towns 40 or 50 votes will easily sway elections like school board, councilman, bonds, ordinances etc. That would give one small PO Box company the ability to swing any local election should a group decide that an issue in that town was of concern to them. There are many out there groups (remember the Westbro Baptist Church who protests military funerals because it somehow jives with their anti gay agenda). Nothing would stop them from renting PO Boxes across the country, requesting absentee ballots and then then voting against anti discrimination laws in multiple elections. It's not like there is some national registry that would flag voting in 200 different local elections at the same time. If an RV'er has no true local address, then they don't get to vote in any local election. I don't see the problem.

As a full-timer ( not in FL) I do not expect to vote in any local elections. Why should I have influence on their community when I don't really live there, don't know the community and probably nothing about the people running for offices or about local issues, the schools etc.

westernrvparkowner wrote:
It would be way too easy for special interests to hijack the results of local elections if all that is requiredto vote in that election is give the registar a PO box.

Like RVers?

westernrvparkowner wrote:
That is how it should be, especially for local elections. It would be way too easy for special interests to hijack the results of local elections if all that is requiredto vote in that election is give the registar a PO box.

I agree. Sounds like another way for voter fraud.