Resident Evil
Eugene Kang must have the establishment worried; now they’re playing the residency card. After years of Ann Arborites arguing that students aren’t real members of the community where they live, now it appears that they aren’t considered real members of the community where their parents live, either. Opponent Stephen Rapundalo charges that Kang’s academic-year residence in a 3rd Ward fraternity on the wrong side of Washtenaw makes him unfit to represent the 2nd Ward. But the most troubling sentence of the story, whose first paragraph seems to be missing again: “Michigan election law states that a person cannot gain or lose a residence while ‘a student at an institution of learning.”’ Is this true? Is it just intended to prevent students from running for office, or does it prevent them from voting too?
Here I think it was used in Kang’s favor. Am I wrong?
posted by Alan Gutierrez on July 30th, 2005 at 3:00 pmThat is quite an interesting sentence. I wait anxiously for Larry to enlighten us; it can’t possibly mean what you’re suggesting at the end (or else it would have been used already), but that’s what it sounds like, from the News’ horribly short snippet.
posted by Murph on July 30th, 2005 at 3:07 pmAnd they make Rapundalo seem really desperate,
“In order to fully appreciate the issues and dynamics, you have to be living right in the middle of it all,'’ Rapundalo said. “Two-thirds of the year, he’s not. Even though it is next door, it is not like mingling with the residents.'’
Certainly one of the lamest attacks on one’s political opponent I’ve ever heard. Consider the precinct map. Compare Kang’s oh-so-terrible this-past-school-year address to Rapundalo’s virtuous “full-time” address. I’d bet even odds that Kang has more in-Ward neighbors within a quarter mile of him than Rapundalo does. If you consider both the neighborhood around Kang’s last-academic-year address and his livin’-with-the-folks address, Kang is familiar with the current residents and issues of _two_ neighborhoods, and is therefore _much_ more qualified by Rapundalo’s standards.
posted by Murph on July 30th, 2005 at 3:26 pmSo students (and, I imagine, in the political vocabulary being used, renters, which means me) are rootless and have no permanent home? Not that it’s the same thing AT ALL, but wasn’t this kind of rhetoric a common fixture of anti-Semitism in Europe? Please note that I’m not directly comparing the two situations, but it’s interesting (though unsurprising and frankly sad) that this kind of rhetorical identification is being made to score cheap political points.
posted by Lazaro on July 30th, 2005 at 3:32 pmIs this referring to “residence” in terms of “residence in Michigan” (e.g., for tuition purposes) or residence for voting/election purposes. The way I understand it, is you choose which address you want to register at, and that’s where you vote/run for office from, since you can pretty reasonably claim both places as a “residence.”
posted by Scott T. on July 30th, 2005 at 8:19 pmThat was my belief, too–I voted in Ohio when I went to grad school in Akron. Even though I wasn’t planning on returning to Louisiana, I figured if any students were currently in residence (and paying tuition to a university in a state “not their own”), voting there should be fine so long as they didn’t try and vote twice.
posted by Lazaro on July 30th, 2005 at 8:29 pmThe phrase about neither gaining nor losing residency is still part of Michigan law, but the state supreme court in 1971 ruled that students have the OPTION of choosing to establish residency in the college town.
Note that, since the 1960 census, students have been counted as part of the population of the college town (where they are living on Census Day, April 1), and hence, since this population affects redistricting, congressional and legislative and county commission districts reflect students’ presence.
posted by Larry Kestenbaum on July 31st, 2005 at 5:00 amWell, once more, I was first in my precinct (2-3) to vote this morning. I just hope my early rising will prove better for my city council primary choice than it did for my presidential choice last November *cross fingers*
posted by Lazaro on August 2nd, 2005 at 7:55 amAtta boy, Laz!
posted by Dale on August 2nd, 2005 at 11:07 amResidency for voting purposes in MI MUST be the same as that stated on your drivers license. One CAN register in their adopted community, but only if they make it their “permanent” residence by informing the Sec. of State, &c.
posted by Hugh on August 2nd, 2005 at 7:32 pmNo, rather, registering to vote in a place is automatically passed to the Secretary of State. Hence, a UM student, say, who fills out a voter reg form in Ann Arbor, with an Ann Arbor address, will eventually receive mail from the Secretary of State containing a new address sticker to place on his or her driver’s license.
It’s that easy!
posted by Larry Kestenbaum on August 2nd, 2005 at 7:54 pmI want mp3 player. What will advise?
posted by Anton on April 13th, 2006 at 4:47 am