Get Out The Vote Celebration

November 8, 2005, was a success in bringing awareness to the homeless community about the importance of voting.

This year marked the second annual effort to coordinate a plan to get people experiencing homelessness to the polls on Election Day. As part of our strategy, celebrations were held at Listening House in St. Paul and Branch III in Minneapolis.

At both events, rides were provided to the polls and there was food, raffle prizes, and speakers.

In addition to planning the Get Out The Vote event, a large effort was placed on informing service providers about a new law that makes it easier for people experiencing homelessness to vote.

This last summer, MN statue 201.061 was passed. This law allows a residential facility to be able to vouch on Election Day for an unlimited number of its residents. However, a certified list of the facility’s employees must be submitted into its local election office 20 days prior to Election Day.

As a result of the efforts to inform service providers of this new law, numerous residential facilities submitted their employee lists.

This new law has made it easier for people experiencing homelessness to vote because now they no longer have to search for a person who is pre-registered and lives in their area to vouch for them. Instead, they can rely on the employees of the facilities they stay at to be their voucher.

Throughout the day, people experiencing homelessness, along with volunteers, packed the drop-in centers. In St. Paul, School Board member Elona Street-Stewart stopped by to volunteer. Pam Wynn, who is a poet and essayist, also came by to speak about why she feels it is important for the homeless community to vote.

Despite not being a major election season, our effort to motivate people to want to go to the polls were successful. It is important to vote, no matter who is running. The Coalition will continue coordinating GOTV events so that more and more people experiencing homelessness will go to the polls and vote every year.