Volunteers and Early Voters during Golden week at the Board of Elections--photo by Josh KanaryA Great Deal of Misinformation about Voting
We assisted with the transportation of hundreds of homeless people to the Board of Elections this last week. I heard in the media (both television and in the print media), a large number of inaccurate statements about these early voting opportunities. First, this was the second election that this opportunity was available. We tried it in 2006, but the Board was not prepared for the idea and so we shut down our efforts to focus on the identification problems for voting day. This was not a partisan effort for any one of the campaigns. As we have done since 1992, our interest was to figure out the best time to get people without homes to the vote. This last week was the best week for homeless people, because if there was any problem with their address they could register at the same time. It does not make any sense that in the age of computers we have to close registrations 30 days before the election. For those worried about fraud, there is plenty of time to investigate these new voters. There is time to send them mail, and verify every one of the new registrants. We drove veterans who may lean toward McCain and African Americans who may lean toward Obama. We did not ask anyone their political affiliation. We went to every shelter in the city and picked up anyone and everyone who wanted to go vote. There was no partisan literature exchanged, and no volunteer was allowed to wear anything that supported either political candidate. The cause was just to get voters who may be experiencing homelessness to the polls to vote. Despite what the New York Post and Fox News says this was just an effort to best serve our constituents by providing transporation to the polling place.
Homeless people do have a right to participate in the democratic process. All the hardships that homeless people have to go through it would seem that we could at least make it as easy as possible for those who need it most to vote. Since the Republicans wrote this voting law, and have been in power in Ohio for years, why are they complaining? How could they go to court to complain about a law that they wrote? They passed the law that allowed early voting in person at the Board of Elections. They passed the law that closed registration 30 days before the election day. They voted into law the provision that said absentee/early voting begins 35 days before the election. Any other interpretation of the law did not make sense. To follow the lawyers for the Republican party's interpretation of the registration law, the deadline for registrations should have closed in the second week in September to assure that a voter was registered for 30 days before they were allowed to ask for an absentee ballot. The other problem with their interpretation is that our system has never treated those changing their address differently from those new registrants. In the eyes of the Board, we do not have two separate deadlines for these two classifications. Those who become homeless on October 14 cannot change their registration. They must vote in the precinct that they previously lived, and they may have to vote by provisional ballot. Even the worst Ohio Secretary State in history, Ken Blackwell, did not use this bizarre interpretation of the registration deadline.
These attempts were pure and simple attempts by one party to suppress voting in Ohio, and homeless people were going to suffer because of these partisan games. All of this shows that we need a real overhaul of the voting process in Ohio. We need to either give out free identification or eliminate the id requirements on election day. We need to go to a County based election system instead of a precinct based system, so that a person can go to any polling place on election day and vote a county-only ballot. If they do not care who is on City Council or if the local restaurant can sell alcohol, but want to vote for President and Congressman, they should have that option. There are no rules at this time for the counting of provisional ballots. What is the standard? What proof is necessary to prove that an individual ballot is valid? We should have a two week window to vote and register at the same time, and every county should have to pay for vote by mail ballots. Or better yet, the federal government should force the post office to deliver for free the ballots to the front doors of democracy--the local boards of elections . All non-elected county employees should be trained to work at a polling place for each election. This way we would not have to rely exclusively on an entirely new workforce who are forced to work incredibly long hours on election day. If we had county workers assisting poll workers, they could work 7.5 hour shifts and not be overwhelmed with the current 13 or 14 hour shifts that poll workers are stuck with right now. All Counties should have to open everyday for 30 days leading up to the election. This will make it easier for people to vote at their convenience. No one should be allowed to challenge a potential voter except a poll worker, but the public should be allowed to observe democracy in action. Right now, you must be with a political party to observe the voting process. This is wrong. A person should be allowed to sit in and watch people vote, and if there is problems be able to communicate with someone to avoid a person’s ballot being spoiled. I created a ruckus in the 2006 election, because one of my friends staying in a shelter was directed to the wrong precinct. I knew that if I let her vote in the wrong precinct her vote would never count, but there was nothing in place to let me communicate my concerns to a poll worker. Finally, since we seem to have accepted as a society a permanent class of people who will live without a home, we should have rules for homeless voting so that people will not feel groups are trying to pull a fast one when they drive homeless people to the Board of Elections.
Brian
Posts by Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless staff and Board.
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