The Modern Battle of Suffrage: The Dual Residents Right to Enfranchisement

Suketa K. Brahmbhatt, Vermont Law School

Abstract

Restriction on second home, vacation homeowners, in special elections. The paper begins with a general overview about voting restrictions such as, prisoners, nursing home residents, and college students. First, the paper discusses the legal reasoning States have provided for restricting prisoners from voting. In addition, this section will discuss the limits on the meaning of “resident,” primarily nursing home residents. This section concludes by discussing how College students are allowed to vote and the policy reasons behind it. The next section lays out the restrictions on second homeowners (vacation homeowners) ability to vote in special elections. The rest of this section focuses on comparing the “second homeowner” to the prisoner, the nursing home resident, and the college student. Specifically, the homeowners’ interest in voting and policy reasons for allowing these homeowners to vote in special elections. The discussion also addresses the limits that are necessary on second homeowners such as restricting voting in two locations in all general elections. The next section of the paper discusses State specific problems (if the case law is found) in New Jersey and Vermont. The paper concludes with reasserting the position that second homeowners should be allowed to vote in special elections.