Reviving this post again because it has honestly been a really valuable source of information for me and I want to add to it.
I'm in the same situation - CA resident going to grad school in MI and maintaining CA residency. I'm just starting my third year and so far it's gone pretty smoothly. My university uses an out of state tuition waiver, rather than paying extra, so they don't really seem to care where my residency is. I'm still on my parents' auto insurance (they also technically still own my car) and have used the associated roadside assistance service without problems (although the no-fault thing caused some unexpected problems when someone ran into my car in a parking lot). I believe that my parents called the insurance company (GEICO) and explained the situation to them and they were fine with it. Filing taxes in both states has presented no issues or obvious extra cost (although MI's refusal to let you pay online is really obnoxious, especially since I have to pay estimated taxes because my university doesn't do withholding from fellowships).
The issue I'm trying to figure out now is voter registration. Since MI is a swing state and all, I feel vaguely guilty for keeping my registration in CA. Here's what I've figured out so far:
- CA seems to be fine with me leaving my registration there, and even has a permanent vote by mail option, which is great.
- If I had a Michigan driver's license, re-registering in the city where I'm going to school would require me to change the address on it.
- Both states list residency in that state as a requirement for voting in that state. I could definitely claim residency in either state, but based on tax forms it doesn't seem like Michigan is okay with me claiming residency in both it and California. The Michigan DMV website says that "long term intent" is what matters.
- I should in theory be able to register to vote in MI without an MI driver's license, and even use a license from a different state as identification when voting.
- campusvoteproject.org goes on to say that "For out-of-state students, registering to vote does not obligate you to obtain a Michigan driver’s license or car registration, but you may be required to obtain a Michigan driver’s license or car registration regardless of voter registration status." I assume this is referring to the issues that we've already discussed here, but it still sounds a little ominous and makes me not really want to mess with it.
Since my long term plan is not to stay in Michigan after grad school, I think I'm just going to leave this alone for now and vote absentee in California, since it seems pretty clear that that's allowed. I wish all of this were clearer, though.
