172 A.D. 271 | N.Y. App. Div. | 1916
The petitioner in this proceeding, after making the necessary formal averments, alleges that “said inspectors have placed on the registry list of said election district, as persons qualified to vote at said general election to be held on the 2d day of November, 1915, the names and addresses of persons as follows: Earl Lewis, 1601 Broadway; Joseph Poland, 25 Fifteenth street; ” that such names now appear upon the registry list, and that the petitioner is informed and believes that such names are illegally upon such list; that the persons so named do not reside at the places named, and asks to have the names removed from the registry list. The discussion of the question of residence in Matter of Rooney (172 App. Div. 274), passed upon at this term of the court, makes it unnecessary to consider the rights of parties to claim a residence separate and apart from their actual abode, and the only question to be disposed of here is whether the respondent Joseph Poland, an employee of the United States government, domiciled within the boundaries of the United States arsenal at Watervliet, may legally register and vote from a vacant house at No. 25 Fifteenth street in the said city of Watervliet.
If Joseph Poland actually had a residence at 25 Fifteenth street, and left that residence to accept service under the United States government, it is not to be doubted that he has not lost that residence by reason of such service (State Const, art. 2, § 3; Matter of McCormack, 86 App. Div. 362; Matter of Barry, 164 N. Y. 18), though by some other act he may have changed such residence. (See authorities cited.) If he had merely left the residence at Ho. 25 Fifteenth street in 1898 and gone into the employ of the United States government, actually living within the arsenal grounds, it is not to be questioned that he could continue to vote from the original residence, unless he elected to abandon such residence, and this situation is not changed because the respondent has been in the service at other points. The language of the Constitution is that “for the purpose of voting, no person shall be deemed to have gained or lost a residence, by reason of his presence or absence, while employed in the service of the United States,” and the result of this language must be simply to permit the person to retain the residence once gained, until by some act, entirely apart from his location in connection with his governmental employment, he chooses a new residence.
But here it appears that the respondent did not, at the time of his registration, file with the registration officers the statement required by section 163 of the Election Law (Consol. Laws, chap. 17; Laws of 1909, chap. 22), “ showing where he is actually domiciled, his business or occupation, his business address, and to which class he claims to belong,” and it is
The order should be affirmed.
Order unanimously affirmed, with costs.