Voting Status when Living Aboard and Cruising

[HHNTR111]

I'm thinking of selling the house, putting our stuff that we don't sell or toss in storage, and going cruising. I'm sure this has been discussed before, but I couldn't find the threads.

How do you vote?

When you sell your house and leave a state with state income taxes, do they try to find you to keep taxing you?

Do you need to establish residency somewhere, like at a dockominium, or can you rent a slip or PO box somewhere and call that home while you live your vagabond life?

We're just thinking of turning ourselves into a bank account and a boat for a while, to see how things develop in this economy.

I'm sure many of us have walked this trail, and I appreciate your wisdom.

Thanks!

[Hudson Force]

We have have our residence established with St. Brendan's Isle, as many cruisers, and have that address on our voter's registration cards, passports, driver's licenses,etc. Florida has no state income tax. While we cruise from Maine to the Bahamas, we have our mail, including absentee ballotts, sent to us at times of our choice. Take care and joy, Aythya crew

[Hud3]

Just like Aythya's crew, we use St. Brendan's Isle in Green Cove Springs, Florida, for mail forwarding to Nevis. Since we have no other address in the U.S., we were eligible to establish "domicile" in the State of Florida using our address there. SBI sent us the forms and filed them with the Clerk of the Court of Clay County, all for a very reasonable fee. Once you're domiciled in the State, you're eligible to register to vote there. We've been able to get our absentee ballots in time to mark them and send them back prior to the deadlines.

We also have Florida drivers' licenses, but you actually have to apply in person for those. The SBI address is also acceptable as a billing address for U.S. based credit cards. Life for us would have a lot more hassles without SBI.

[HHNTR111]

Thanks, Hud and Aythya. Great info. We might also keep our house in Connecticut for a while, and just be sure to be out of the state more than six months per year, which seems to be Ct's hot button.

[Hudson Force]

We maintained our established St. Brendan's Isle address for almost a year before with dropped our previous address. 'not a significant cost and a reassurance of the process. If you proceed to obtain the Fl drivers license with the Fl residence they can fax you a "declaration of domicile " form which is new in 2010 (homeland security) to establish residence. It's best to get a head start with the paperwork before reaching a date for jumpin in! 'take care and joy, Aythya crew