Accept resident responsibilities

After reading the article on Bates students and their ability to vote in local elections (Nov. 7), I am again frustrated that individuals get to decide to embrace one law and disregard another.

If you are ready to declare yourself a resident of a municipality, then you should be ready to accept all that goes with it. No one should be allowed to select what rules they follow and which ones they don’t. All residents get to vote, register their vehicles, pay taxes on their property, obtain a valid driver’s license, etc.

What would happen if all of us got the choice to pick and choose? What if we decided not to pay property taxes or to register our cars in another state where there is no excise tax? Would we be subjected to arrest? Is this not a form of discrimination?

What if we were so adamant about a local change and got our out-of-state friends/relatives to come and vote by allowing them to receive mail at our residence in order to register?

Either you are part of a community or not.

Voting is a privilege and should not be abused or misused. If you consider yourself a resident of another state and are here only for a short period of time, please vote absentee in your home state and do not affect the outcome of local elections. Residents have to live with the results, not you.

Jacqueline Smith, Lewiston

Editor’s note: The Supreme Court’s ruling in Symm v. United States, 1979, affirming that all students have the right to vote where they attend college.