State Citizenship

      ~T.E. Sumner 

“All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.” 

Constitution 14th amendment

Born in the USA

The 14th Amendment applies to citizenship.  When slaves who had been brought to the US prior to the Civil War were freed, some states moved to disenfranchise them by claiming they were not citizens of the very state they lived in.  The 14th trumped that false claim. 

Note that citizens of a state are by that fact citizens of the United States.  State citizenship implies and conveys US citizenship. 

Visitor and Immigrant US visas do not specify a place to live and work while provisional migrants.  No state coordination exists currently. 

Uniform State Immigration Laws

Each state can have its own methodology to naturalize aliens so long as the state law conforms to Congress’ law. 

Governors or their agents, like state judges, can perform naturalization ceremonies and issue Certificates of Citizenship in their state.  The conveyance of state citizenship also conveys US citizenship, not just state citizenship. 

Importantly, all state-issued records and identification cards and certificates should indicate citizenship. 

The “CITIZEN” label is added only for Texas citizens.  “DRIVER LICENSE” or “COMMERCIAL” is added for drivers, and if appropriate “VETERAN” can be added.  “CARRY” indicates situational weapons trained and approved.

Citizens arriving from other states to reside in Texas would have to prove up their actual citizenship before a state identification card could bear the notation “Citizen.” Non-citizens issued ID cards by other states would not automatically become citizens in Texas.

Applicants for an identification card also need to prove up their actual name, as they were born with or as decreed by a court – no nicknames, no abbreviations, no omissions – full legal name. Gender and sex are currently being hashed over by some people who believe their appearance and their feelings override biology. To minimize questions, the notations XX and XY (or as appropriate) according to a biological test, should be shown if Sex or Gender is to be shown.

© 2020, T. E. Sumner

In this practice the reverse may be blank, but it can be populated with other information as is illustrated.  Importantly, whatever data is shown anywhere on the card should also be stored on the chip, if embedded.

The storage chip could also hold important additional information, in addition to all the data on the card, such as change history, a personal public key, if issued, donor information, health basics for emergencies, etc.  The card user would have to decide what protections to place on non-public data.

Other form factors are possible, such as portrait versus landscape orientation.  Separate labeled cards could also be issued for valid reasons, rather than a single combined card.   

Under-21 Orientation

Non-Citizen Identifications

Notice that “Citizen” is absent from the top. 

Also note that the Real ID star indicates identity has been verified by the issuing agency and that the bearer is lawfully present in the US. This is not an indicator of citizenship. There is currently no differentiation between a status of admitted under parole and may be allowed to stay temporarily and to work, and previously admitted under parole but “lawful” status revoked.

Citizenship Transfers from other States

Since principal residency is an essential requirement of citizenship in a state, a person can have only a single state citizenship.  A person cannot be principally residing in two places.

Converting other state citizenships to Texas Citizenship needs better rules, revolving around principal residency established by what time, plus relinquishment of other citizenships.  A 30 to 180 day period would be minimal to change.  

Converting other state citizenships to Texas Citizenship needs better rules, revolving around principal residency established by what time, plus relinquishment of other citizenships.  A 30 to 180 day period would be minimal to change. 

It is important to “age” transfers to prevent, for example, voters from operating in multiple states, public assistance from being duplicated, and to allow at least some assimilation of the newly minted Texans into local issues, traditions and customs, plus voter integrity.  Registration to vote requires residency as of 30 days prior to the Election Day, but an “aging” period to gain “residency” is important, as well as surrender of residency in other locales.

Getting control of the invasion on our border is a multi-part problem that begins with identifying actual Texas citizens as opposed to having other states misrepresenting non-citizens as citizens through their identification cards.   

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Gerrymandering and The Right to be Represented

We want government representatives to cover all viewpoints of their constituents fairly.

Advocates for racial representation try to segregate those of a particular color or race so that they can have their own representation.

How asinine!

A recent Democratic judicial panel in the US District Court of Western Texas ruled that Congressional boundaries were drawn so as to minimize relative numbers of a particular ethnic group, by spreading their bloc among adjacent districts and, thus, dilute their ability to elect candidates of the same ethnic persuasion in any of those districts. As if the identified group all thought alike and would want the exact same things…

Is it truly better to have a district with boundaries drawn so that a majority race or majority color can be constructed from adjacent districts that otherwise would claim those minorities?

Which groups or divisions of people are acceptable to create such a minority district from, and must it also be relatively contiguous geographically? Is it solely color of skin, or should all physical, mental, ethnic and cultural differences be accounted for separately in representation from districts?

If Italians and Irish are commingled in two adjacent districts, is it better to divide the two national-origin groups by gerrymandering the boundaries so that there is a more exclusively Irish district and a more exclusively Italian district? Or, should we simply draw compact and contiguous districts regardless of the relative proportions of Italians and Irish?

If Jews and Christians, similarly, are intermixed geographically, should we re-draw boundaries so as to give a district with primarily Jewish constituents in one or more districts while drawing the boundaries to concentrate Christians in the remaining districts?

How far should we take this objective of drawing boundaries to create a majority constituent group?

  • Should we segregate constituents by gender identity issues?
  • Maybe women from men?
  • Maybe English- from Russian-speaking from Chinese-speaking?
  • Maybe rich from poor?
  • Maybe smart from dumb?
  • Where does this divisiveness stop?

To unite people, we divide them. That’s logical.

We don’t try to see past differences – we focus on them.

We don’t try to find common ground – we seek confrontational divisive politics.

Melting pot, shmelting pot.

Those district judges “know” that if you have the same skin color as someone else, you want the same things and you vote the same way. They’re not prejudiced at all. And their views unite us all.

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Votes – the Currency of Democracy

In democratic government power is wielded by those voted into power.  Changes in the law, like Constitutional amendments and plebiscites also are voted on. Voting is a crucial element of practicing democracy in a republic.

Plurality Rules vs Majority Rules

Decisions are bought into by the voters primarily by majority voting.  Counting ballots usually reveals that only a small portion of citizens eligible to vote actually show up to vote.  The fact that many voters disenfranchise themselves is appalling.  It is also appalling that, although eligible to become voters, many citizens simply fail to register to vote.  Between these two appalling facts of failing to register and failing to vote we find that only a small fraction of the voting-aged population actually exercises their right to vote.

Worse, decisions are almost always determined by the largest number of votes received on an issue.  A plurality is a pitiful way to decide things, especially considering the appalling facts above.votes 40-30-25

With 3 choices available, if 40% favor choice A, 35% favor B and 25% favor C, A will win.  Even though A has only a plurality, it will be the official outcome.

Voter Fraud & Low Turnout

To put this in perspective, typically only 60% of the voting-aged population bothers to register to vote. In a typical election only 20-40% of those registered show up to vote.  This means that tiny fraction of voters (12-24%) can determine the outcome, perhaps only 40% of 20% of 60% of voting age people.  In a close race only half of 12% wins, maybe less.  How can only 5% or less determine an election?

Registration to Vote

Sometimes it’s just laziness: the voter moved and didn’t re-register in the new voting precinct.  Sometimes it’s to avoid jury duty, since often jury pools are selected from voter registries.  Often eligible citizens don’t know the process or the place to go to register, and then it takes a while to get around to it.

Low Information Voters

What do we imagine the 5% or less that vote for choice A B or C know about the 3 choices and how informed they are to choose?  Are they party-line voters, do they recognize the name of a candidate, or did they see a political advertisement that swayed them?

Fraud Affects Outcome

It should be obvious that having a cadre of informed voters who show up is essential to having good election outcomes.  When a few votes out of 5% are fraudulent, it can alter the election outcome to become fraudulent, too.  We cannot allow votes to be bought, to be stolen or in any way to be fraudulently or forcibly cast.  We simply cannot afford to waste even a single vote.

Theft, Loss, & Counterfeit Votes

Since the democratic process runs on votes, the notion that votes are the currency of democracy is correct.  Counterfeit currency steals value from other currency-holders.  Counterfeit votes steal outcome from real voters.  A voter’s wishes are diluted by the presence of fake ballots in the ballot box.  Fake ballots are those created by someone without counting them as coming from a legitimate voter. In the past this illegitimate practice was called ballot-stuffing.

Currency stolen from its proper owner, whether the owner is aware of it or not, is still theft.  Stealing a vote is a matter of attributing a ballot to a particular voter (who didn’t vote).  These stolen votes are based on fraudulent identity, and steal the power of the legitimate voter, even though the voter may not know about the theft.  When ballots are accounted for and handed out only to registered voters, only fraudulent identification of a registered voter will result in theft of vote.  Election Code 63.0101

Integrity from Start to Finish

Theft and loss of votes can also occur later during the canvassing of ballots.  Ballots could be miscounted, could be discarded unintentionally or intentionally, or could simply be misreported.  Trusting officials to safeguard ballots and to count them all properly forces us to design voting systems that can be trusted, typically by re-counting by separate mechanisms and different people and cross-checking the result or allowing audit of votes afterwards.

In an ideal voting system ballots would be intact from casting to canvassing with the ability for audit by officials and for voters to verify their individual ballots were counted and no others recorded in their names.

Single Vote vs Authenticating a Voter

But all systems rely on authenticating a person claiming to be eligible as a voter.  It’s one thing to force everyone issued a ballot to dip their hand in indelible ink so we know only one ballot was issued, but how do we know if they’re eligible at all?

We adhere to the principle “One Man, One Vote” meaning you can’t vote twice for Governor or twice for President and so on.  But, we also mean that Green Party members can’t vote in the Socialist Party primary election, and citizens in one county can’t illegitimately vote for county issues in another county.  Proving that a voter is actually eligible to vote is crucial.

We have these 2 important points:

  • You must be eligible to vote
  • You must not vote more than once

Eligibility to Vote

Today only citizens may vote and residence is used to determine where they vote.  Registering to vote allows an agency of the government to vet the person for citizenship, record any identifying information, confirm their taxpayer status, and issue a voter card.  In an ideal voting system every citizen eligible to vote would be able to register to vote nearly instantaneously.  This would allow the ‘green’ eligible area to be equal to the ‘blue’ registered area show in the graphic above.

Double Voting

Voting more than once can be detected by tracking when a person votes and having all other places or methods to vote precluded by that detection.  If I vote for President in precinct 123, as soon as I cast a ballot for President, all other precincts know about it and I cannot go to another precinct and vote for President again.  My vote is tied to my identity.  If I can be uniquely identified, then duplicate votes can be stopped for me (if my identity is confirmed every time I attempt to vote).  mexico-voter-ID-card-91115061883

Of course not only must other precincts be allowed to see I have already voted but other methods, such as early voting and voting by mail, should be checked before issuing a ballot to me and they should also be allowed to see that I have voted.  Those other locations must be allowed to see the issuance as quickly in real time as possible – if there is a delay, then before allowing the ballot(s) to be cast, the issuance and casting at other locations must be checked.

Poll Book of Registered Voters

Each voting location, including mail processing, must confirm identity of the applying voter.  The voting system will be no more secure against fraudulent and duplicate votes than the methods used to confirm identity of voters and verify uniqueness of ballot issuance.  dallas 3045 pollbook p16

The polling location that has a book of only names and addresses of eligible voters is probably the least secure.  Identity confirmation based on names and/or birthday and/or address are common methods.  Any of these methods are actually not very secure.  Internal processes at the polling station should preclude such a possibility of ballot theft or duplicate voting, but with collusion it is still very possible.

No ID Required

If no ID is required, any person can come up to a clerk and claim to a name in the open book without an indication that the voter already voted.  In fact poll-workers can simply issue themselves or their confederates ballots in the names of any people that have not already voted.

Signatures

Part of the ballot issuance process, then, should include a method of leaving a trace by the voter that it was she and not someone simply claiming to be the voter that can be audited later.  A signature of the voter might work.  However, very few people are expert enough to recognize whether a signature is a forgery.

Photographs

No poll books have photos of voters – so comparing the person’s face to a photograph in the book would not work for identification.  But taking a photo (as the trace) would be a change a substantial number of voters would object to.  However, almost all voters have pictures on their driver licenses or other government-issued ID card.  A poll-worker could take a photo of the ID card itself to act as trace that the voter appeared to get a ballot.

Fingerprints

Fingerprints, such as a thumbprint, are useful to establish a verifiable trace of the voter’s appearance at the polling station, but comparing fingerprints is probably a difficult job for ordinary poll-workers unless they’re aided by machinery.  And where would the source print come from to compare to?  Driver licenses are often issued by the state department of public safety or motor vehicles, who also take fingerprints as part of the licensing process.  This government source of fingerprints would be a good one.

Capturing biometric data at the time of registration and making it easy to verify at the time of issuing a ballot (or casting it) will add to the security and integrity of the voting system, but will also add some labor and storage needs for the data and the checking.  Machinery to assist poll-workers in verifying could also add to the equipment cost of elections.

Voting Systems We Can Bank On

To safeguard votes, the currency of democracy, we need a voting system that

  • Allows near-instant registration to vote
  • Utilizes existing government identity systems as appropriate
  • Captures needed biometric data on the registered voter
  • Securely stores and distributes registration data and ballot data
  • Assists poll-workers in verifying voter identity data and detecting duplicate ballots
  • Minimizes the possibility of collusion in credentialing and issuance of ballots
  • Securely accepts and transports ballots to a canvassing location for secure storage
  • Permits a voter to confirm her ballot was counted and not altered
  • Permits poll-watchers to confirm a total visual count of voters appearing against the number of ballots cast
  • Permits a non-voter to confirm that no ballot was accepted in his name
  • Permits any citizen to see a list of who voted in which election and confirm each was verified by an official before a ballot was issued
  • Permits the public to confirm that total issued ballots matches total votes
  • Enables auditing of each of the various stages of the voting process

Clearly, verification of voter identity requires an ID card that provides some biometric data, such as a photo or fingerprint, that poll-workers can verify a voter’s identity.  Further, the process must include capturing the same data at the time of ballot issuance and casting.Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmail

No Taxation without Representation

Voting today is limited to only those voters residing within the jurisdictional boundaries of the election.  Typically, the geographic limitations are imposed by requiring citizens to prove residence in a jurisdiction before allowing them to vote.  Residence implies that those voting have a vested interest in the outcome because they have to live with those results and pay the taxes that are used to fund the governance in the jurisdiction.  If a citizen pays taxes, they should have a right to say how those taxes are spent.  In 1776 we fought for the principle “No Taxation without Representation.” No Taxation without Representation

If a foreigner visits NYC and pays sales tax on items he buys there, should he get a voter card there?  If he is only visiting, he probably does not have more than a passing interest in who’s mayor or whether a sewer project is voted and funded by taxes and fees.

However, if the NJ citizen who commutes in every workday has to pay taxes on his paycheck he earns in NYC, he probably wants to have a say in whether tunnel fees rise or a stadium is paid for by his taxes.  That’s only fair.

The same is true of a citizen who owns a second home, a dwelling he rents to others or property he simply pays real estate taxes on.  He should have the right to say how those taxes are spent.  While we’re sympathetic to the citizen who crosses a state line to buy goods that are cheaper or not available where he lives, we don’t think he should get a voter card for that situation, even though he pays sales tax.

But why does the apartment-dwelling suburban homeowner have to choose between voting in the city or voting in the suburbs?  Why does the real estate investor have no say over how his taxes are spent that are collected on his rental property?  By requiring residence in the property even though real estate taxes are paid the government has disenfranchised the investor and second home owner.

A citizen should have the right to vote in every jurisdiction where he lives and/or pays taxes.

We need a Constitutional Amendment to assure this. amendmentXXXII

We do need to limit this proposal with the notion we also adhere to “One Man, One Vote.”  For example, suppose the suburban family owns a house in CT and a working parent of the family also owns an apartment in the city (NYC).  Should the apartment dweller be able to vote in both NYC and suburban CT?

Yes, but she or he gets only one vote in each distinct jurisdiction.  So, in each city he or she gets a vote and in each state, but not 2 votes for President, since that violates the One-Man One-Vote principle.  The voter must decide which is the principal residence and vote for President in that precinct only.

When a voter is eligible to vote in more than one precinct because of her taxpayer or residence status, then any overlapping jurisdictions between the precincts have to be resolved to a single vote.  If an investor owns 10 houses in 5 cities with 3 school districts, then she’ll get 5 city votes and 3 school board votes.

One does wonder, though, after due consideration, if “No Taxation without Representation” is a sound principle, is the converse also valid.  If you pay no taxes, should you be able to vote to raise taxes on other citizens?

no-representation-wo-taxationThis parapraxis actually captures the concept described above.  But since it generally disenfranchises people if they pay no taxes, we need to word any Constitutional limitation to cover the case where non-taxpayers are prohibited from setting tax rates or taxes for taxpayers.  This might also include officials responsible for setting taxes and tax rates.  If a person isn’t currently paying a particular tax, that person should not be able to increase taxes on those who are paying.Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmail