State Office Residency Requirement (S 2979)

We opposed legislation that would impose a two-year residency requirement to qualify as a candidate for state office. We acknowledged that Rhode Island is one of only a handful of states that has a de minimis residency requirement, and we appreciate the arguments that are offered for imposing a more substantial residency obligation on candidates. Ultimately, however, we believe it should be up to the voters themselves to size up the candidates in any particular election and determine their qualifications as a whole – including whether a lack of a lengthy consecutive presence in the state is reason not to vote for them. A two-year residency requirement is, we argued, an arbitrary qualification standard that inappropriately overrides the potential will of the voters.