[StBernard] voters

[Westley Annis]

With the recent elections so fresh in our minds, I am already wondering
about the length of
time that those who no longer reside at their pre-Katrina, St. Bernard
Parish domiciles, will be able to continue to vote as where they did before
the storm. Some people tell me that it goes by the driver's license address,
but if that was the case, I don't see how thousands of people we still able
to recently vote in their former voting districts unless there was some
State rule that allowed it or they are  keeping their former address. If so,
when does the time expire such that a voter can only vote in the precint of
their driver's license?  I have also been told that their is no national
system in this country to detect those who have received new, out of state
licenses, yet vote as though they have never left their pre-katrina
domicile. 

Anyone an expert on when we return to people only voting where their truly
are domiciled?  I think that as we go beyond 18 months since the storm, it's
time to ensure that voters vote in their true domicile.  It was 
important that voters temporarily displaced have a voice in the community
they intend to return to, but
as time goes on, and we do have very important elections on the horizon,
that the election of our local, state, and federal representatives be
determined by those actually domiciled in the district.  Seems that under
the present situation, a person who got a driver's license just before the
storm and moved away could be voting
in St. Bernard Parish for years until the license expires. Also seems that
houses demolished and not re-built should be an automatic elimination of the
domicile of that person.

Perhaps someone reading this can educate me on this issue. I only know
enough to distinguish between domicile and home due to the many elected
officials who are domiciled in the district they represent but live in a
home elsewhere. Domicile has some legal criteria and there have been many
Orleans parish elections where this issue was called to voters attention,
but it didn't seem to influence the election results. If you keep up with
Orleans, you know of one notable case that involved a person truly living in
Eastover, but domiciled at a relative's house in the Ninth Ward for election
purposes.

Ddk