November 13, 2022 • 6 mins
Not having a permanent address or access to identifying documents can make voting in U.S. elections nearly impossible. Learn more about these challenges -- and what some organizations are doing to help -- in this episode of BrainStuff.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio.
Hey brain Stuff, Lauren Vogelbaum here with a classic episode
from our archive. As of this publishing, the election cycle
is over for most Americans, of everyone who hasn't had
a race go into a runoff anyway. But issues of
how Americans access their right to vote are exactly what
(00:25):
we should keep talking about during the political off season,
especially how to expand access for underserved and underrepresented populations.
And that's why I wanted to run this particular episode.
It's about how voting works for unhoused people in this country.
Hey brain Stuff, Lauren Vogelbaum here. Voting is the cornerstone
(00:49):
of American democracy, but it can be a bit of
a pain. Election day in the US is always a
Tuesday's back in the middle of the work week. If
you move to a new spade or county, you need
to reregister and state voter I D requirements change all
the time, so you could possibly show up to a
polling station, wait in line, and still get turned away. Now,
(01:10):
imagine that you're homeless in America or unhoused, which is
an often preferred term because after all, home can mean
a lot of things. You might move around too frequently
to maintain a stable mailing address. You might have lost
your state issued I D let alone your Social Security
card and birth certificate. You might not be able to
afford transportation to the county elections office or your local
(01:32):
polling place. And frankly, you probably have a lot more
pressing problems than registering to vote. So while unhoused people
have every right to vote in US elections and have
a vested interest in influencing policy on housing and poverty,
the obstacles to successfully registering and voting while unhoused can
(01:53):
be insurmountable. First, there's the residents and mailing address issue. Interestingly,
of the fifty states requires that voters live in a
traditional residence. On voter registration forums, you can put a
shelter address, a street corner, a park bench. You can
even attach a hand drawn map, and that's fine for
establishing that you're a resident of the state and county.
(02:15):
But many states also required that you provide a mailing
address where you can actually receive mail. Again, that can
be a shelter or a friend or relative's house, but
it cannot be a p O box, and it can't
be a park bench. While it's easy for many Americans
to provide an alternate address where they could receive mail,
that's not always the case for people who don't have
(02:37):
a fixed residence and without a fixed address to receive
election notices from the county clerk's office, unhoused voters can
be wiped from voter registration roles. We spoke with Tristia Bauman,
senior attorney with the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty.
She referenced to the laws that criminalize sleeping or camping
in public places and said it's important to remember that
(03:00):
homelessness is an inherently unstable state. Those laws have the
effect of displacing people from the areas where they normally
live and have connections. The lack of an address and
the lack of ability to stay in one location lawfully
conspire to make it ever more difficult for homeless people
to register to vote or vote by mail. Lack of
(03:21):
identification is another big challenge for unhoused voters, as there
are ten states was strict I D laws, meaning that
you cannot vote on election day without presenting some kind
of valid government issued identification. Another twenty four states had
non strict voter ID laws that allow voters without an
ID to sign an affidavit swearing to their identity. Even
(03:45):
in states without voter ID laws, first time voters registering
online or by mail are required to provide a driver's
license number or copies of a utility bill, bank statement,
or other document certifying their residency. If they fail to
provide identification during first time registration, they'll be asked to
show an i D on election day. While obtaining a
(04:05):
driver's license or state issued i D is free in
most states, that doesn't mean it's easy for an unhoused
person to jump through the administrative hoops to make it happen. Poor, elderly,
and unhoused people are far more likely to not have
a state issued i D, which is why voter i
D laws have been challenged as discriminatory. Then there's the
(04:26):
issue of safeguarding personal property. Even if an unhoused person
is lucky enough to have an IDEA in their possession,
there are many ways for those documents to get lost
or stolen, even at the hands of police. Ballman said
local governments often respond to illegal homeless encampments by coming
in and doing a clean up that results in the
seizure and destruction of a homeless person's property, you could
(04:49):
potentially lose your I D or your birth certificate or
Social Security card, or any of the other prerequisite items
that you need to register. The good news is that
advocacy groups like the National Coalition for the Homeless have
created resources like a Voting Rights Guide to help shelters,
drop in centers, food pantries, and other nonprofit groups organized
voter registration drives to help unhoused individuals register and get
(05:12):
to the polls. And despite the daunting bureaucratic hurdles facing
unhoused voters, there are a handful of states that specifically
offer exemptions for unhoused citizens, a trend that will hopefully continue.
In Indiana, for example, which is a strict photo I
D state, you can register and vote without an I
D if you claim indigence status, and in Oregon, unhoused
(05:36):
voters can use the county election offices address as their
mailing address. Today's episode is based on the article Homeless
Americans and Vote, but it Isn't easy on Housed to
works dot com, written by Dave rus. Brain Stuff is
production of our Heart Radio in partnership with Houstuff works
(05:57):
dot com and it's produced by Tyler Klang. Form podcasts
My heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app, Apple podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. H
Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio.
Hey brain Stuff, Lauren Vogelbaum here with a classic episode
from our archive. As of this publishing, the election cycle
is over for most Americans, of everyone who hasn't had
a race go into a runoff anyway. But issues of
how Americans access their right to vote are exactly what
(00:25):
we should keep talking about during the political off season,
especially how to expand access for underserved and underrepresented populations.
And that's why I wanted to run this particular episode.
It's about how voting works for unhoused people in this country.
Hey brain Stuff, Lauren Vogelbaum here. Voting is the cornerstone
(00:49):
of American democracy, but it can be a bit of
a pain. Election day in the US is always a
Tuesday's back in the middle of the work week. If
you move to a new spade or county, you need
to reregister and state voter I D requirements change all
the time, so you could possibly show up to a
polling station, wait in line, and still get turned away. Now,
(01:10):
imagine that you're homeless in America or unhoused, which is
an often preferred term because after all, home can mean
a lot of things. You might move around too frequently
to maintain a stable mailing address. You might have lost
your state issued I D let alone your Social Security
card and birth certificate. You might not be able to
afford transportation to the county elections office or your local
(01:32):
polling place. And frankly, you probably have a lot more
pressing problems than registering to vote. So while unhoused people
have every right to vote in US elections and have
a vested interest in influencing policy on housing and poverty,
the obstacles to successfully registering and voting while unhoused can
(01:53):
be insurmountable. First, there's the residents and mailing address issue. Interestingly,
of the fifty states requires that voters live in a
traditional residence. On voter registration forums, you can put a
shelter address, a street corner, a park bench. You can
even attach a hand drawn map, and that's fine for
establishing that you're a resident of the state and county.
(02:15):
But many states also required that you provide a mailing
address where you can actually receive mail. Again, that can
be a shelter or a friend or relative's house, but
it cannot be a p O box, and it can't
be a park bench. While it's easy for many Americans
to provide an alternate address where they could receive mail,
that's not always the case for people who don't have
(02:37):
a fixed residence and without a fixed address to receive
election notices from the county clerk's office, unhoused voters can
be wiped from voter registration roles. We spoke with Tristia Bauman,
senior attorney with the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty.
She referenced to the laws that criminalize sleeping or camping
in public places and said it's important to remember that
(03:00):
homelessness is an inherently unstable state. Those laws have the
effect of displacing people from the areas where they normally
live and have connections. The lack of an address and
the lack of ability to stay in one location lawfully
conspire to make it ever more difficult for homeless people
to register to vote or vote by mail. Lack of
(03:21):
identification is another big challenge for unhoused voters, as there
are ten states was strict I D laws, meaning that
you cannot vote on election day without presenting some kind
of valid government issued identification. Another twenty four states had
non strict voter ID laws that allow voters without an
ID to sign an affidavit swearing to their identity. Even
(03:45):
in states without voter ID laws, first time voters registering
online or by mail are required to provide a driver's
license number or copies of a utility bill, bank statement,
or other document certifying their residency. If they fail to
provide identification during first time registration, they'll be asked to
show an i D on election day. While obtaining a
(04:05):
driver's license or state issued i D is free in
most states, that doesn't mean it's easy for an unhoused
person to jump through the administrative hoops to make it happen. Poor, elderly,
and unhoused people are far more likely to not have
a state issued i D, which is why voter i
D laws have been challenged as discriminatory. Then there's the
(04:26):
issue of safeguarding personal property. Even if an unhoused person
is lucky enough to have an IDEA in their possession,
there are many ways for those documents to get lost
or stolen, even at the hands of police. Ballman said
local governments often respond to illegal homeless encampments by coming
in and doing a clean up that results in the
seizure and destruction of a homeless person's property, you could
(04:49):
potentially lose your I D or your birth certificate or
Social Security card, or any of the other prerequisite items
that you need to register. The good news is that
advocacy groups like the National Coalition for the Homeless have
created resources like a Voting Rights Guide to help shelters,
drop in centers, food pantries, and other nonprofit groups organized
voter registration drives to help unhoused individuals register and get
(05:12):
to the polls. And despite the daunting bureaucratic hurdles facing
unhoused voters, there are a handful of states that specifically
offer exemptions for unhoused citizens, a trend that will hopefully continue.
In Indiana, for example, which is a strict photo I
D state, you can register and vote without an I
D if you claim indigence status, and in Oregon, unhoused
(05:36):
voters can use the county election offices address as their
mailing address. Today's episode is based on the article Homeless
Americans and Vote, but it Isn't easy on Housed to
works dot com, written by Dave rus. Brain Stuff is
production of our Heart Radio in partnership with Houstuff works
(05:57):
dot com and it's produced by Tyler Klang. Form podcasts
My heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app, Apple podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. H
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