While heading out of town on Route 9 to testify at some state house committee hearings, David, Darryl and I were pulled over by Keene police Sgt. Jason Short. Short had noticed the yellow Shire license plate on the back of the peace cruiser, pulled us, and proceeded to pore over his book of NH RSAs to see with what he could charge me.
He really couldn’t find anything, since the car is legally registered in Wisconsin to a corporation, so he wrote me a ticket for allegedly being a “resident” and not getting a NH driver’s license under RSA 263:35, which states:
Notwithstanding the provisions of RSA 261:44 or any other law to the contrary, any nonresident driver of a motor vehicle who holds a valid driver’s license in another jurisdiction, upon the establishment of a bona fide residency in this state, shall have a maximum of 60 days from the date his residency was established to obtain a driver’s license issued by the state of New Hampshire.
How does one establish “bona fide residency”? The statutes don’t have those terms defined, but they do define “residency” which is a legal term distinct from “inhabitant”. RSA 21:6 states:
A resident or inhabitant or both of this state and of any city, town or other political subdivision of this state shall be a person who is domiciled or has a place of abode or both in this state and in any city, town or other political subdivision of this state, and who has, through all of his actions, demonstrated a current intent to designate that place of abode as his principal place of physical presence for the indefinite future to the exclusion of all others.
Notice that inhabitant and resident are both defined in the same way. It appears that residency is something that must be actively sought. Why anyone would want to do this, I’m not certain. No benefit is conferred by being a resident, only new demands and taxes. Like, for instance, getting a NH license and registering vehicles.
In the video (some bad audio due to road noise), Jason Short argues that he’ll be able to prove I’m a resident because I have lived here a long time and run for office. However, as the evidence will show at trial, in my recent filing for School Board I crossed out “reside” and wrote in “am domiciled”. The application was accepted with the modification, so clearly one does not need to be a resident to run for office. With regard to the claim that I’m a “resident” because I’ve lived here a while, RSA 259:88 makes it pretty clear that one must actively choose to be a resident:
“Resident” shall mean a resident of the state as defined in RSA 21:6, except that no person shall be deemed to be a resident who claims residence in any other state for any purpose.
Arraignment is set for 3/6 at 8:30a in Keene District Court. They have been wanting to get me for this for a long time. We’re going to trial and that should be a good time to ask some interesting questions about obligations and residency and such.
