Hat tip to the BradBlog http://www.bradblog.com/... which covered this in June 2011 http://www.bradblog.com/... and always has great coverage on these issues. It was also covered by Rachel MAddow in this segment from June 2011: http://www.youtube.com/...
Last June, a little know Republican Presidential candidate named Fred Karger filed a complaint with the state of Massachusetts charging that Romney committed voter fraud when he voted in the January 2010 Massachusetts special election to fill Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat.
http://dailycaller.com/...
Romney sold his own home in Belmont in 2009. Karger based his complaint on the premise that Romney was using the unfinished basement of his son's house in Belmont, MA as his address for voting purposes even though he was not residing there in 2010.
On Romney's 2010 return, the street address is blacked out, but the city and state clearly say that his home address is in Belmont, MA.
http://mittromney.com/...
This certainly raises the question (again) as to whether or not Romney used the address of a basement where he did not live for voting purposes in MA, rather than registering to vote at his $12.5 million ocean front home in La Jolla, California or at his $10 million compound in New Hampshire.
The law in Massachusetts is pretty clear about the residency requirements needed to vote in the state. The state defines residence as "where a person dwells and which is the center of his domestic, social, and civil life."
Committing voter fraud in the state is punishable by five years in jail and a fine of $10,000.
Rmoney did buy an $895,000 townhouse in Belmont In July 2010 (well after the special election), a move that finally gave Mitt a permanent Massachusetts address (although I do not know if he makes this residence the center of his "domestic, social,and civil life."
Here is the chronology of Romney's residences based on Karger's complaint:
1) Romney and his wife, Ann, bought a $12.5 million home in La Jolla, California, in May 2008.
2) A year later, in April 2009, the Romneys sold their home in Belmont, Massachusetts, for $3.5 million, and allegedly registered to vote from an address in the basement of an 8,000 square-foot Belmont manse owned by their son Tagg.
3) the National Journal reported in May 2009 that the Romneys had actually made their primary residence a $10 million estate in New Hampshire.
4) January 2010 Romney votes in the Massachusetts special election
5) July, 2010 - Romney finally buys a townhouse in Belmont, MA.
Hopefully, this new information from Romney's tax returns will compel an actual investigation from the Massachusetts Secretary of State’s Elections Division (they previosuly refused to investigate).