<p>Hi, all.</p>
<p>I'm not sure if I'm posting in the right place, but I have a question about residency and registering to vote. I can't seem to find the information I want on the internet, so at the risk of sounding dumb, here goes....</p>
<p>Does registering to vote in the state you attend school impact your legal residency? I go to school in Iowa, but I'm from Maryland. My vote had more impact in Iowa than it would have had in Maryland, so I registered with Iowa using my campus address. By registering in Iowa, I claim residency. So... what address do I use for official documents, financial aid, etc? Do I need to get a new driver's license from Iowa? What do I do about taxes? If I had known that this could be a potential issue, I would have just done an absentee ballot .... >__<</p>
<p>Thanks for any help you can give.
-FrayedPages</p>
<p>In some states it does, and in others it does not. Registering to vote in a state is one piece of evidence that you can use to begin to establish a claim for residency in that state, but it by itself does not constitute residency. Residency usually means planning to permanently domicile in a place, and you don’t intend to stay in Iowa. So no, just because you registered to vote in Iowa doesn’t mean that you have to get an Iowa DL, change your address at school, or file taxes in IA.</p>
<p>The other thing to remember is that residency for state/voting purposes (like car registration requirements) is not necessarily the same thing as residency for financial aid and tuition purpose. You can be a resident of a state without being qualified for resident tuition. For example, I’m a PA state resident - with a PA DL, address, and voter registration. But because I’ve only lived here for 3 months, I couldn’t get in-state tuition if I wanted to return to school (which I DO NOT. LOL.)</p>
<p>State residency for different purposes has different thresholds. State residency for in-state tuition purposes is typically the hardest to get, while state residency for being required to change your driver’s license if you drive in that state is typically among the easiest to get. Changing voter registration may or may not affect any of these types of residency, depending on the state.</p>