Candidate eligibility

[Jonathan Buhacoff]

Proposal:

To be a candidate for any elected local office, a person must be an adult citizen resident of the locality for at least 10 years.

To be a candidate for any elected state office, a person must be an adult citizen resident of the state for at least 15 years.

To be a candidate for any elected state legislature position, a person must meet the requirement for state office and be an adult citizen resident of the locality or region being represented for at least 10 years.

To be a candidate for any elected federal office, a person must be an adult citizen resident of the country for at least 20 years.

To be a candidate for any elected federal legislature position, a person must meet the requirement for federal office and be an adult citizen resident of the state being represented for at least 15 years.

The minimum residency requirements are waived for newly formed localities, states, or federal governments. T

Intent:

To ensure that people elected to office in any level of government are mature, loyal to the country, and understand the location and its people.

Discussion:

In a federal system, the federal government would only set the eligibility requirements for federal office. It would not dictate the eligibility requirements for state or local office. Therefore, the state and local parts of the proposal are for states to adopt.

There should not be a distinction between natural-born citizens and naturalized citizens for the purpose of these eligibility requirements. If a person has been “naturalized” and taken the pledge of allegiance, they should be treated the same as natural-born citizens or else the naturalization is meaningless.

The requirements are phrased as “adult citizen resident” which means a person must be all of those things for the required amount of time. For example, a child born in a town and grows to be 18. The now-adult must then live in that town for 10 years as an adult before being eligible for an elected local position at age 28. In another 5 years the same adult can run for a state office or state legislature position representing their home region. This prevents someone from moving into town and just running for local public office or a state legislature position representing the region without even knowing the area or having established relationships with people there.

Instead of imposing a specific age requirement for office, the proposed requirements impose a citizenship requirement and a residency requirement that fairly imposes the same requirement on everyone in term of being an adult citizen resident of their represented area for a minimum length of time. While this does translate to a minimum age to hold local, state, or federal elected office that’s just a side effect and the intent is for the person to be familiar with the area they represent and have adult relationships with people there and to have experienced it as an adult citizen paying taxes, voting, enduring disasters together with other residents, and so on.

For a newly formed local, state, or federal government the residency requirement is for the same area being represented by or within the boundaries of the local, state, or federal government.

For a newly formed federal government that has existed less time than the minimum citizen residency requirement, the citizenship part of the requirement is amended to be a citizen and a current resident of the represented area but without a minimum length of time.

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