Opinion ID: 2614688
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Residency for Voting Purposes.

Text: Six absentee ballots were invalidated by the court below for the reason that the voters were found to be non-residents of Catron County. Atwood challenges these findings of the trial court, claiming there was insufficient evidence to support them. Under the terms of Article VII, Section 1 of the Constitution of New Mexico, a citizen must reside in the precinct, and the county, in which he offers to vote. The New Mexico statutes are clear that the residence of a person is the place in which his habitation is fixed, and to which, whenever he is absent, he has the intention to return. § 1-1-7, N.M.S.A. 1978. The statute establishes a two-prong test to determine residency: a change of residence is accomplished only by the act of moving to another place coupled with the intent to remain in the other place. A person does not lose his residence if he goes to another place for temporary purposes only and with the intention of returning. The cases generally hold that the return must be anticipated at some reasonably definite or determinable time in the future. It does not mean an undefined or undefinable purpose to return to one's former residence. Moore v. Tiller, 409 S.W.2d 813 (Ky. 1966). With this unambiguous definition of residence before us, the task is to assess the trial testimony to determine if there is substantial evidence to show the non-residence of the voters in question. It is undisputed that the six people whose votes were invalidated had removed themselves from the county; they all testified and were cross-examined. However, these voters were caught on the second prong of the residency test. At no place in the record is there a statement by any one of the six persons that they had any intention of returning to Catron County. All of them had permanent jobs in other counties of the state. Insofar as the record reflects, they all either intended to stay permanently in their new locations or, if they decided to move, intended to go to some place other than Catron County. There is absolutely no doubt that these six people voted illegally in the election. The trial court was correct in deciding to purge their votes from the totals.