Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey
Speaker 1: brain Stuff, Lauren Bogelbaum here. Voting is the cornerstone of
Speaker 1: American democracy, but it can be a bit of a pain.
Speaker 1: Election day in the US is always a Tuesdays back
Speaker 1: in the middle of the work week. If you move
Speaker 1: to a new state or county, you need to reregister,
Speaker 1: and state voter I D requirements change all the time,
Speaker 1: so you could possibly show up to a polling station,
Speaker 1: wait in line, and still get turned away. Now, imagine
Speaker 1: that you're homeless in America or unhoused, which is an
Speaker 1: often preferred term because, after all, home can mean a
Speaker 1: lot of things. You might move around too frequently to
Speaker 1: maintain a stable mailing address. You might have lost your
Speaker 1: state issued I D let alone your Social Security card
Speaker 1: and birth certificate. You might not be able to afford
Speaker 1: transportation to the county elections office or your local polling place,
Speaker 1: and frankly, you probably have a lot more pressing problems
Speaker 1: than registering to vote. So while unhoused people have every
Speaker 1: right to vote in US elections and have a vested
Speaker 1: interest in influencing policy on housing and poverty, the obstacles
Speaker 1: to successfully registering and voting while unhoused can be insurmountable. First,
Speaker 1: there's the residents and mailing address issue. Interestingly, none of
Speaker 1: the fifty states requires that voters live in a traditional residence.
Speaker 1: On voter registration forums, you can put a shelter address,
Speaker 1: a street corner, a park bench. You can even attach
Speaker 1: a hand drawn map, and that's fine for establishing that
Speaker 1: you're a resident of the state and county. But many
Speaker 1: states also required that you provide a mailing address where
Speaker 1: you can actually receive mail. Again, that can be a
Speaker 1: shelter or a friend or relative's house, but it cannot
Speaker 1: be a p O box, and it can't be a
Speaker 1: park bench. While it's easy for many Americans to provide
Speaker 1: an alternate address where they could receive mail, that's not
Speaker 1: always the case for people who don't have a fixed
Speaker 1: stidents and without a fixed address to receive election notices
Speaker 1: from the county clerk's office, Unhoused voters can be wiped
Speaker 1: from voter registration roles. We spoke with Tristia Bauman, senior
Speaker 1: attorney with the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty.
Speaker 1: She referenced to the laws that criminalize sleeping or camping
Speaker 1: in public places, and said it's important to remember that
Speaker 1: homelessness is an inherently unstable state. Those laws have the
Speaker 1: effect of displacing people from the areas where they normally
Speaker 1: live and have connections. The lack of an address and
Speaker 1: the lack of ability to stay in one location lawfully
Speaker 1: conspired to make it ever more difficult for homeless people
Speaker 1: to register to vote or vote by mail. Lack of
Speaker 1: identification is another big challenge for unhoused voters, as there
Speaker 1: are ten states was strict ID laws, meaning that you
Speaker 1: cannot vote on election day without presenting some kind of
Speaker 1: valid government issued identification. Another twenty four states had non
Speaker 1: strict or i D laws that allow voters without an
Speaker 1: i D to sign an affidavit swearing to their identity.
Speaker 1: Even in states without voter ID laws, first time voters
Speaker 1: registering online or by mail are required to provide a
Speaker 1: driver's license number or copies of a utility bill, bank statement,
Speaker 1: or other document certifying their residency. If they fail to
Speaker 1: provide identification during first time registration, they'll be asked to
Speaker 1: show an i D on election day. While obtaining a
Speaker 1: driver's license or state issued i D is free in
Speaker 1: most states, that doesn't mean it's easy for an unhoused
Speaker 1: person to jump through the administrative hoops to make it happen. Poor, elderly,
Speaker 1: and unhoused people are far more likely to not have
Speaker 1: a state issued i D, which is why voter ID
Speaker 1: laws have been challenged as discriminatory. Then there's the issue
Speaker 1: of safeguarding personal property. Even if an unhoused person is
Speaker 1: lucky enough to have an ID in their possession, there
Speaker 1: are many ways for those documents to get lost or stolen,
Speaker 1: even at the hands of police. A Ballman said, local
Speaker 1: governments often respond to illegal homeless encampments by coming in
Speaker 1: and doing a clean up that results in the seizure
Speaker 1: and destruction of a homeless person's property. You could potentially
Speaker 1: lose your i D, or your birth certificate or Social
Speaker 1: Security card, or any of the other prerequisite items that
Speaker 1: you need to register. The good news is that advocacy
Speaker 1: groups like the National Coalition for the Homeless have created
Speaker 1: resources like a Voting Rights Guide to help shelters, drop
Speaker 1: in centers, food pantries, and other nonprofit groups organize voter
Speaker 1: registration drives to help unhoused individuals register and get to
Speaker 1: the polls. And despite the daunting bureaucratic hurdles facing unhoused voters.
Speaker 1: There are a handful of states that specifically offer exemptions
Speaker 1: for unhoused citizens, a trend that will hopefully continue. In Indiana,
Speaker 1: for example, which is a strict photo I D state,
Speaker 1: you can register and vote without an I D if
Speaker 1: you claim indigent status. And in Oregon, unhoused voters can
Speaker 1: use the county election office is address as their mailing address.
Speaker 1: Today's episode was written by Dave Ruse and produced by
Speaker 1: Tyler Clang. For more on listen lots of other topics,
Speaker 1: visit how stuff works dot com. Brain Stuff is production
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