The Goal: 2,000 Homeless People to Vote in Two Weeks!!!
Despite the Republican Party lawsuit, which attempts to block homeless people from participating in early voting beginning September 30, we are moving forward. We need your help volunteering to transport homeless people to the main Board of Elections from September 30 to October 7. This is amazing that anyone is objecting to this plan. This was a law that the Republican party wrote with no input from outside experts. We sued to block the law with our ID lawsuit. So, NEOCH and homeless people were no fans of this massive change in election law. Many experts provided input at the hearing that this law was poorly crafted. Remember that the law written by the Republicans who controlled the Ohio legislature for 12 years, said a voter could use a military id as long as it contained an address. There are very few military identifications, if any, that list an address. So, now that we are trying to use a law that they wrote to help homeless people to vote, they are objecting. The nerve. We have used this law for years except that before 2006 a person had to say that they were going to be out of the City or otherwise unavailable to vote on election day.
It is a burden to get homeless people to vote, and we should all try to make it easier instead of putting up barriers. This is a great opportunity for a homeless person to register and vote at the same time. It is difficult, if not impossible, to get mail within the shelters. So, mailing an absentee ballot to the shelter is a huge crap shoot. By definition, homeless people need to change their address with the Board of Elections after having lost their homes. Since we have come to accept homeless people in every city in America, we should make it as easiest as possible for this population to participate in the democratic process.
Brian
Posts by Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless staff and Board.
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