A residency requirement conditions electoral participation or candidacy on physical presence (and often domicile or intent to remain) within a defined jurisdiction for a minimum period. Such rules appear in constitutions, electoral codes, and party rules, and they vary widely between voter eligibility, candidate eligibility, and access to party primaries.
For voters, residency rules determine where a person may cast a ballot and for how long they must have lived there before registration. In the United States, the Supreme Court in Dunn v. Blumstein (1972) struck down Tennessee's one-year state and three-month county residency requirement as a violation of the Equal Protection Clause and the right to travel, signaling that long durational requirements are constitutionally suspect. Most U.S. states now require only that a voter be a resident by a registration cutoff or by election day itself.
For candidates, residency rules are typically longer and more strictly enforced. The U.S. Constitution requires House members to be "an Inhabitant" of the state they represent when elected (Art. I, §2), and Senators likewise (Art. I, §3); the President must have been "fourteen Years a Resident within the United States" (Art. II, §1). Many countries impose analogous rules: France, Germany, and the United Kingdom each set their own qualifications for parliamentary candidacy, often combined with citizenship requirements.
Common policy debates around residency requirements include:
- Whether they unduly burden mobile populations such as students, military personnel, and unhoused voters.
- How they interact with same-day registration and automatic voter registration.
- Whether they should bar "carpetbagger" candidates who relocate shortly before filing.
- How diaspora voting and overseas absentee rules carve exceptions for non-resident citizens.
Residency requirements are distinct from citizenship, domicile, and registration requirements, though in practice these categories overlap and are often litigated together.
Example
In 1972, the U.S. Supreme Court in Dunn v. Blumstein invalidated Tennessee's one-year state residency requirement for voters, holding it infringed the constitutional right to travel.
Frequently asked questions
Residency generally refers to physical presence in a place, while domicile adds the legal element of intent to remain indefinitely. A person can have multiple residences but only one domicile, and many election laws actually test domicile even when they use the word 'residency.'
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