Over the past months, groups around the DC area have worked feverishly to help register homeless and low-income district residents for the upcoming election.
Historically, low-income and home¬less individuals vote at the lowest rate in the country. In the 2008 presidential election only 51.9 percent of the poorest voting-aged citizens actually voted, compared with 79.8 percent of the wealthiest voting aged citizens, accord¬ing to the U.S. Census Bureau.
For three days, the National Coali¬tion for the Homeless (NCH) and students at George Washington University ran a table at the Martin Luther King Library to encourage and assist people in the voting registration process. An¬other group of GWU students ventured into local parks to answer questions and register people.
The GWU groups were able to collectively register 137 individuals. They also helped guide another 150 individuals, who mainly lived outside of the district, to early voting information as well as where they can vote.
So Others Might Eat (SOME,) held a similar registration booth from their dining hall at 71 O St., NW. In a single week this month, SOME registered 105 new voters. In addition , SOME also reg-istered 165 DC voters in early 2012.
“It needs to be recognized that just because someone is low income and can’t contribute financially to a cam¬paign does not mean they should be ignored from the voting process,” says Nechama Masliansky, senior advocacy advisor at SOME.
Same-day registration on November 6 is available but the deadline to register in person at the DC Board of Elections and Ethics has passed. If you have re¬ceived a “voting card,” you have the option of early voting until Saturday, November 3. For more information on DC voting, see www.dcboee.org.
