Groups registering homeless voters - Organizer says turnout likely will be very low

Houston Chronicle ^ | KRISTEN MACK

[Cincinatus' Wife]

In an attempt to register homeless people for the November election, two local groups are capitalizing on the fact that you don't need a permanent address to register to vote in Texas.

This week, SEARCH, a nonprofit organization that provides services to the homeless, and the League of Women Voters of the Houston Area sponsored registration drives targeted at the homeless.

"It is pretty novel," said Sandy Reese-Kesseler, SEARCH's executive director. "The idea was not a big brainchild or a stroke of mental genius. It was a client-initiated endeavor."

Reese-Kesseler said SEARCH's clients care about the same issues that are important to most voters — jobs, health care and the war in Iraq.

Voters don't have to own a home or have a permanent address to register, although in Texas they do have to provide an address on their applications. SEARCH allows new registrants to use its Midtown address. But homeless people can also use intersections.

Neither group is pushing specific candidates or issues, but rather are encouraging people to be informed and participate, organizers said. They don't have a particular goal on how many people they want to register. During the drives, 82 people were registered.

Whether they will actually make it to the polls on Election Day is another matter.

"I'm sure it will be very low," Judy Hollinger, president of Houston's League of Women Voters, said of the turnout. "But what is the success rate in the general population? If you register them, they start feeling like they are a part of society. You have to get them to try and participate in their own destiny and environment. They are still citizens."

There are similar efforts taking place across the country, by groups such as the National Coalition for the Homeless and the National Low Income Housing Coalition.

On July 22, the two national groups registered more than 1,100 people to vote in 17 states and the District of Columbia.

In addition, they hope to register another 25,000 homeless and poor people by the November election.

[exhaustedmomma]

Good grief, this is as dumb an idea as that Austin homeless haven deal... giving them a street corner to call home, and to "pee for free" on.

How is this even going to work? I moved during the 2K election and had the biggest run around on "proving" I was eligible to vote and WHERE I was "allowed" to vote. I had to have all kind of "proof."

For the record, in Houston the "homeless hangout" is pretty much the downtown bus station... like Grey Hound bus. Talk about rift-raft central.