Voting in SD....could be a thing of the past! - RV-Dreams Community Forum

bigboomer · RV-Dreams Family Member

Voting in SD....could be a thing of the past!

Howard · Host

Here is the link to the proposed bill on the South Dakota's Legislature's website: Senate Bill 164

It does in fact look like it would eliminate voting rights for full-timers using Mail Forwarding Service addresses in South Dakota for domicile purposes. There is an appeals process, but it looks like it would have to go to the second level of appeals for voter registration to be granted and that may be a long-shot.

There certainly seems to be an effort by some in South Dakota to kill off the domicile/mail forwarding industry as it relates to full-time RVers.

We'll see where this goes.

Neil and Connie · RV-Dreams Family Member

I find it hard to believe that voting rights for Federal elections will be affected…too much likelihood that the Federal courts will frown on that. My guess is that we'll still be allowed to register/vote for Federal offices and probably statewide offices as well.

On the other hand…I can see some justification for local things like school board to only allow people that actually live there to vote on them. State legislators and governors start to get too much out of the realm of local though…mailing service residents should probably be allowed to vote for them as well as county commissioners and the like…since they do vote on things that affect mailing service residents like wheel taxes and such.

I guess we'll have to wait and see what the final outcome is…this may be one of those bills that has 1 sponsor in each state legislature house and never goes anywhere or it may actually have wider support.

Depending on how things turn out…they may lose a lot of 'citizens' and the associated money they bring into the state to pay for the mailing service and vehicle registrations.

We had originally thought about moving our residency to Florida next fall since our drivers licenses are up for renewal and decided to stick with SD as it's les work. If this goes through we'll have to rethink that depending on what voting rights remain for us non-resident domiciled people.

-- Edited by Neil and Connie on Thursday 11th of February 2016 02:18:28 PM

BiggarView · RV-Dreams Family Member

SDregistered forum members might want to consider proactively write to their SD elected officials and make their objections known. If nobody complains or objects it will have no chance of being defeated in a legislative vote.

here's a link to contact Senator Tieszen(R) one of the sponsors of the Bill.

or to contact SD Rep. Herman Otten(R)

-- Edited by BiggarView on Saturday 13th of February 2016 04:49:33 PM

PrairieRV · RV-Dreams Family Member

The way that's written, any military service-members would not qualify for residency, either. I know many military folks use Texas as their domicile. I don't know if SD has that privilege, or not.

Patti

Howard · Host

The Advocacy Director for Escapees RV Club sent out this email to members today:

Escapees have been notified that the South Dakota Senate Bill #164 entitled, “An Act to revise certain residency requirements for voter registration” is scheduled to be heard in the State Senate Affairs Committee on Wednesday, February 17, 2016, at 10:00 a.m. Escapees have sent a letter outlining its opposition to this bill to Senator Gary Cammack, chairman of the committee. Those wishing to address this issue may do so by emailing Senator Cammackat: http://legis.sd.gov/Contact/LegislatorEmail.aspx?MemberID=838&Session=2016