How to Help Fellow Americans Exercise their Right to Vote—At No Cost to You

While many of us are becoming increasingly desensitized to the daily chaos we are currently experiencing, perhaps we need to discuss some issues more than others now as a nation. Specifically, we need to begin to deal with the financial and employment impact that Covid-19 is causing. Why? Because whether we see it or not, each of us is experiencing almost constant trauma.

Every moment for the past 150 days, Americans are constantly coping with family, friends, colleagues and neighbors who are dying, or becoming permanently disabled due to Covid-19. We are also making daily decisions to weigh acceptable risks to both our own wellbeing and the health of those we love. Like it or not, none of us can truly escape the impact Covid-19 is having on each of us both personally and tangentially.

While that is more than enough to keep us all quite busy, that is not all. We also recently experienced many external events that are continuing to impact us. From the passing of Congressman John Lewis, Rev. C.T. Vivian and Civil Rights Activist Charles Evers; to the current efforts now underway to find safe ways to help Americans with damaged/destroyed homes due to Hurricane Hanna whacking Texas. We are even preparing for the upcoming impact of Hurricane Isaias as it prepares to clobber the east coast anywhere between Florida and Maine.

Under these circumstances, it is quite understandable that many of us are not paying much attention to the multiple layers of deliberate tactics now underway in the political arena. Nonetheless, there is significant chaos about to hit in the upcoming months that we need to keep a collective eye on. Like it or not, we are about to experience a rapid end to the moratorium of evictions in the U.S. that the CARES act put in place in March. Without that protection moving forward, we are about to experience up to 40 million Americans becoming homeless over the next few weeks. Please note that these people are your neighbors, not addicts, not mentally ill, not even ex cons. By the way, none of them deserve homelessness either, (but that is for a future post on another day).

We are all about to have our hands full. Many of us are already barely getting by ourselves, but even if we aren't able to financially help others, or don't have free time to volunteer, each of us can still consider one simple and vital way we can help one another as Americans. That way is: to help the soon homeless to vote. If your first reaction was; “But they can vote already!” you are partly correct. While homeless citizens can legally register/vote in all 50 states, there are some barriers in the bureaucratic processes and It is critical that we all understand what needs to occur if/when thousands of Americans should become homeless.

Like it or not, the process and requirements for voting become far more cumbersome and need multiple items that homeless people do not generally have on hand. For example, in most states; citizens must have a mailing address. This is to ensure two things: First, that the person is in the correct district/voting for the people representing their place; Second, to assign a poling place. Needless to say, when you are homeless, you may not have a physical address to receive voter ID cards; or other election-related materials you will need. BTW, you will also have a few other problems to solve that need your attention and make it nearly impossible to focus on how to keep your right to vote. So for those of us fortunate enough to keep our homes in the upcoming months; let’s become the port in the storm for displaced friends so we can legally help our neighbors to vote.

This issue already deeply concerns our leaders. At the recent memorial service for the late Congressman John Lewis, Barack Obama provided some perspective on the current politics and shed light on some issues we can expect in the upcoming election: ”We may no longer have to guess the number of jelly beans in a jar to cast a ballot, but even as we sit here there are those in power that are doing their darnedest to discourage people from voting”.

Voter suppression is nothing new. It has been constantly attempted throughout our history and increasingly so since the passing of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. While the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) works continuously to combat rampant purging of multiple voter registration rolls; the effort to continue purging records is still underway in multiple states and it has increased significantly in the past couple years. So it is critical for us to not lose sight of any infringements being attempted on our rights as voters and we need to stay diligent both for ourselves and our fellow Americans. The president even tried recently to propose delaying the election. While he ultimately stepped back from that rather quickly (after his friends and congressional allies gently explained why it was not possible to do so)—he continued to pitch that there could be potential delays that “may happen” because of “alleged” (but unproven) “future potential fraud”. Efforts to discourage and even suppress Americans’ votes are unlikely to stop during the upcoming months—so each of us needs to do our part to prevent further suppression of Americans’ right to vote.

So in the upcoming days, if you learn of a neighbor, relative, friend, colleague, or loved one who loses their home over the upcoming days and months; please consider helping them. It requires only your mailing address and with minimal effort, you can help them receive their voting ID. To clarify, you are not becoming their home, nor their address. Legally, a voter's mailing address and residential address needn't be the same. Rather, you are simply providing a place “...willing to accept mail on the voter’s behalf”. So please be that for them—and help them to stay (along with the rest of us) the United States of America.