What's the difference between a cynic and a realist? Seeing a press release from Virginia's State Board of Elections (SBE) declaring it had voted unanimously in favor of forming a voter residency task force brought the question out.
Gee, this board agreed to do its job, as defined by State Code, which includes having "uniformity in their practices and proceedings" and that local electoral boards and general registrars are properly trained.
The issue being taken up by this task force made national headlines last fall when disparate practices were applied to students who were attempting to register to vote. The NRV was ground zero with Radford University and Virginia Tech student populations receiving conflicting information and treatment.
Since college students across the state were getting different treatment, one local registrar asked for a little clarity. The 2009 General Assembly aimed to oblige, with four resulting bills.
None of these bills included requiring greater proof of residency for students than for any other citizen. One change did produce a statement, which now serves as ground zero for this task force: "The State Board shall promulgate rules and regulations to ensure the uniform application of the law for determining a person's residence."
Note this is for any person, not distinguished as student, young adult, female, minority or any other subsection of the voting public. Any person, uniform application. And in this case, "uniform" is not circling back to a lame attempt at establishing a dress code for voters (another SBE kerfuffle).
Our state leaders decided to address the crux of the issue by making the following changes to the definitions:
"Residence" or "resident," for all purposes of qualification to register and vote, means and requires both domicile and a place of abode. In determining domicile, consideration may be given to a person's expressed intent, conduct, and all attendant circumstances including, but not limited to, financial independence, business pursuits, employment, income sources, residence for income tax purposes, marital status, residence of parents, spouse and children, if any, leasehold, sites of personal and real property owned by the person, motor vehicle and other personal property registration, and other factors reasonably necessary to determine the qualification of a person to register or vote. To establish domicile, a person must live in a particular locality with the intention to remain. A place of abode is the physical place where a person dwells.
If a cynic is a person who believes other people are motivated by self-interest or have a limited perspective and a realist sees and accepts situations as they are, how do you think this task force will define "intention to remain" as regards registering college students to vote?