election tomorrow

[cos]

Tomorrow, Tuesday May 15th, is the general election for the open seat on the Somerville Board of Aldermen. The two top candidates from last month's primary, Marty Martinez and Jack Connolly will be on the ballot.

Polls are open 7am - 8pm, and you can find your polling place at WhereDoIVoteMA.com. All Somerville voters can vote in this election (election info from the city).

Many people who voted in the primary will forget to vote again tomorrow, so both candidates need some new voters as well as many of their supporters from April as they can get. If you're supporting Jack, this is your chance to make a comeback; if you're supporting Marty, don't assume he'll win. Vote!

Comments

[cos]

... and if I were eligible to vote in California and moved to Somerville I would most certainly expect to be eligible to vote in Somerville pretty close to right away - and I would be. There's no six month waiting period. Practically speaking, there's a 30 day waiting period because of our voter registration deadline, but as soon as Massachusetts gets same day registration that would be gone. For example, NH has same day registration. If you pack up your stuff in your car and drive up there, and decide you're gonna live there, and they have an election tomorrow, you could legally vote in NH tomorrow (even if you haven't found an apartment yet).

[heliograph.livejournal.com]

So you can vote in New Hampshire elections without a New Hampshire address? Can you point me to a link on that?

As far as the California thing goes, you're changing the subject without answering the question. If you went to another country (any country, you can pick), how long would you need to live there before you felt like you should be able to vote in their elections?

[cos]

Read my answer above. But I'm getting increasingly frustrated at what seems like intellectual dishonesty from you, so I'm not going to respond any further on this thread.

[heliograph.livejournal.com]

So you just made up that New Hampshire thing, right? Honestly, I've Googled for it and everything I can find says that they require an address before you can vote. Without an address how would they even know where you would vote?

I'm not sure how I'm being intellectually dishonest. I'm just trying to understand your position.

I think what you're saying (and feel free to clarify) is that you think people who come to Somerville, even if they're here for just one day, and say that they should be able to vote if they hit the 30 day registration deadline. But if you went to another country, you wouldn't expect to be able to vote in their elections even if you were there for a year.

Is that what you believe? That you're willing to give out rights in your own country that you wouldn't expect if you were in another country?

[dominika-kretek.livejournal.com]

In case anyone cares, it seems to me that signing an affadavit that you intend to establish residency in New Hampshire and that you have a place to return to is all the "proof of domicile" you need to vote in New Hampshire. I'd be surprised if it were otherwise, since U.S. citizens in most (if not all) states have a right to vote. You neighborhood clerk would probably be skeptical if you put where you parked your car (assuming you are living out of your car) as your domicile, but if you were doing it in good faith, you could probably get away with it. If you were staying in a motel you could certainly put that location.

If I actually lived in France, made France my home, participated in the community, paid taxes to France, then I would want to vote in at least some of the elections. I wouldn't expect to, since everyone makes their laws as they see fit. But I would definitely want to.

[turil.livejournal.com]

Why should voting in Somerville have anything to do with where you lived before you moved to Somerville? Why discriminate against people who moved from Canada, or Africa, or England, but not California, or Hawaii, or Vermont?

[heliograph.livejournal.com]

So if you moved to Canada or Africa or England you'd expect to be able to vote in their elections, even if you were still a US citizen?

[turil.livejournal.com]

Again, expectations are very different from potentials. We have the potential to give everyone who actually cares about Somerville to have a voice in Somerville issues.

Also, you avoided my question. Why discriminate against someone simply because they happened to live outside of the US before they came to Somerville?

And to at least partially answer your question, yes I would expect to be able to vote in local elections in Canada if I moved there, since that is exactly what would happen. I don't know about Africa or England, but I expect that they might have similar policies as Canada.

[heliograph.livejournal.com]

Also, you avoided my question. Why discriminate against someone simply because they happened to live outside of the US before they came to Somerville?

If you're going to propose a change to the system, I'd like to know what your proposed system is. Personally, I'd keep the current system but make changes to the immigration laws to make the process of becoming a citizen faster than it is now.

I'm not advocating discriminating against anyone (pretty much all I've done here is ask questions), but I'm trying to understand what your position is.

And to at least partially answer your question, yes I would expect to be able to vote in local elections in Canada if I moved there, since that is exactly what would happen.

Based on what? From my Googling all the sources that I can find say you have to be a citizen (of Canada) to vote in Canada.

I don't know about Africa or England, but I expect that they might have similar policies as Canada.

In which case only citizens could vote. There are places that allow immigrants to vote, but you haven't hit one yet (AFAIK).

I don't (and haven't) objected to allowing immigrants to vote (again, I've only committed the thought crime of asking questions about it), but I would like to see a concrete proposal on the issue from the people who are advocating it.

[turil.livejournal.com]

Canada allows "landed immigrants" to vote in local elections where they live. Admittedly, becoming a landed immigrant is a fairly complex process, but that's sort of beside the point :-)

And as for a proposed policy, it depends on who you ask. Cambridge has one. My own policy would be more indepth. I'd let anyone vote who wanted to, but only if they participated in some kind of community program and/or took a class on Somerville issues, so that they at least had some solid basis for making good decisions about Somerville issues.

[heliograph.livejournal.com]

Canada allows "landed immigrants" to vote in local elections where they live.

Do you have a pointer for that? I Googled "Canadian landed immigrants" to see if that got a different result, and it didn't. And they call them "Permanent Residents" now, just like we do (if you can believe Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permanent_resident_(Canada)

According to that page, Permanent/Landed Residents can't vote.

I'd let anyone vote who wanted to, but only if they participated in some kind of community program and/or took a class on Somerville issues, so that they at least had some solid basis for making good decisions about Somerville issues.

Do you have to pass the class, or just attend it?

[penny-chase.livejournal.com]

From Wikipedia it wasn't clear to me if landed immigrants can vote in local elections, but according to the Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrant's web site, at least in Ontario, only citizens can vote in local elections (see http://www.settlement.org/sys/faqs_detail.asp?faq_id=4000564). From Googling, I gather that this was a campaign issue in last year's election for the mayor of Toronto.

[heliograph.livejournal.com]

I'd let anyone vote who wanted to, but only if they participated in some kind of community program and/or took a class on Somerville issues, so that they at least had some solid basis for making good decisions about Somerville issues.

You're aware that this is the kind of thing you have to do to become a US citizen, right?

[heliograph.livejournal.com]

You need an address to register to vote in New Hampshire:

http://www.sos.nh.gov/vote.htm

"You may register as soon as you move into your new community.

HOW TO REGISTER
1) Apply to your town or city clerk's office. You will be required to fill out a standard voter registration form and will be required to show proof of age, citizenship and domicile.

[and]

3) Qualified individuals may also register to vote at the polling place on election day at all elections. You will be asked to show proof of age, citizenship, and domicile."

I'm still not sure how I'm intellectually dishonest. Dishonest implies lying, but I only asked questions and didn't misrepresent any facts (as you did). So is that like a thought crime? I don't think the way you do, so that's intellectually dishonest?