Addressless Voting: Maintaining Homeless Voter’s Rights

Photo by Anthony Anaya

Houseless individuals, individuals in a transitory state, and nomadic individuals with no fixed address seem to face major obstacles when voting and educating one’s self for an election.  In most states, the poll office is a physical location one must visit to cast your vote. In Colorado, Oregon, Washington, and recently Hawaii (NCSL), votes are cast by mail. In these states however is also an opportunity to cast your vote in person.  Where one major obstacle lies is registering to vote, as all states require extensive forms of ID verification that people experiencing houselessness may not have (National Coalition for the Homeless). The National Coalition for the Homeless states:

“low income and homeless individuals vote at a lower rate than people with higher incomes,despite the fact that many policy decisions directly impact people who are economically disadvantaged,” (National Coalition for the Homeless).

The National Coalition for the Homeless is an organization working towards maintaining the rights of

homeless and low-income individuals.  Since 2004, they have been working diligently to maintain

voters rights of homeless and low-income individuals, helping homeless and low-income individuals

register to vote.

Check out their Campaign HERE!

Resources:

https://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/all-mail-elections.aspx

http://nationalhomeless.org/campaigns/voting/

https://www.aiga.org/general/gotv-2012-detail-page/?fileid=943

Written by: Hannah Mason