The fact that people have their residence in a particular country can be relevant in two ways:
- in the case discussed in Nationality/Citizenship, in which the citizens of other states, but residing in the country, may be entitled to vote in the local elections
- the extent to which their residence either within or outside the country affects the citizens themselves
The place of residence within the country is the determining factor for elections on a local or regional scale, and may be for registration on the voters list. As a rule, in regional or countrywide elections, it is not always mandatory for the citizen to in fact reside in the country. The law usually provides procedures for them to vote by mail, at consulates or at special venues (the case of high-ranking military officers or civil servants outside the country).
But there are examples where this is not so, such as in Italy, where the personal presence of the voter is required in order to be entitled to vote. This issue is of great importance in countries with a high number of emigrants, for reasons that are not only quantitative. In countries where prior registration on the voters list is required to vote, but it is left up to the citizen, prerequisites are established for access to the voters list, so as to avoid fraud or duplicate voting (such as a minimum period of residence in the place).
Instances which could make the place of residence irrelevant for voting purposes are beginning to emerge, such as voting through cash dispensers already put into practice in Costa Rica. It must be noted though, that the place of residence of the voter is important, above all, for the determination of the constituency in which their electoral preference is to be counted and not just to decide at which polling station voting should take place.
The place of residence within a country can have important repercussions in states made up of several ethnic groups or nationalities. Legal rules that establish which citizens have to vote within each administrative or electoral district of the country should guarantee a fair distribution of the respective populations. This is an issue which is not disputed in consolidated democratic states. Nobody disputes the elaboration of the voters list based on rules on valid residence in Scotland, Quebec or the Basque Country. But it could raise serious problems, for example, in some of the new states that have emerged from the former Soviet Union, in which a criterion of ius sanguinis predominates for the granting of nationality and the right to vote, regardless of the place of residence. The use of this criterion without heeding those employed by the other states with which some of its inhabitants have some tie or other, has given rise to 'statelessness' to such an extent that in some of these countries (e.g., Russia), the birthplace (ius solis) and not national or family origin is the criterion used.
