Homeless Voters

So, a friend just emailed me about National Homeless Voter Registration Week, which runs September 26-Oct. 2 this year. Now, admittedly, I had never thought about this issue before, but it seems quite reasonable that you should not lose your franchise to vote (particularly in state-wide or national level elections) simply because you are without shelter.

This lead me to wonder what the laws are governing the registering of voters who do not have a place of residence--that is, in what district do you register to vote, if you don't live anywhere in particular?

The National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty has a Model State Homeless Voter Registration Act, which is available at the website for the National Coalition for the Homeless. A thought-provoking document (at least for us nerdy-lawyer-types), it points out just how hard it is to ensure that everyone who wishes to participate in elections gets the opportunity to do so.