by Robbie Sequeria, Georgia Recorder, [This article first appeared in the Georgia Recorder, republished with permission]

October 25, 2024

Civil rights groups say new Georgia voting rules have made it too easy to challenge the eligibility of people living in nursing homes, college dormitories and military facilities, and will make it more difficult for homeless people to register to vote.

The new rules are included in a broader law, signed by Republican Gov. Brian Kemp in May, that makes it easier for U.S. citizens to challenge somebody’s eligibility to vote.

The law says there is probable cause to challenge a person’s voting eligibility if that person lives at a “nonresidential address” — a category that might include shelters, nursing homes, dorms and other places that show up as “nonresidential” under local zoning laws, according to critics. The provision took effect in July, so it can be used to challenge people’s eligibility to vote in the upcoming election.

The law also states that in order to register, homeless people without a permanent address must collect election-related mail at the registrar’s office in the county where they live. Other Georgians are allowed to receive election-related mail wherever they choose. That provision takes effect in January, so it won’t have an effect on eligibility to vote in the upcoming election.

Last month, the Georgia State Conference of the NAACP and Georgia Coalition for the People’s Agenda Inc., a voting rights coalition, filed a lawsuit against the state, arguing that the two provisions violate the voting rights of Georgians who are homeless or housing insecure.

Homeless people face significant barriers to voting — many of them lack photo identification, for example — but most states have rules designed to make it possible for people without permanent addresses to register to vote and cast ballots. Critics say the new Georgia rules would have the opposite effect and worry that other states might duplicate them.

Ryan Snow, an attorney with the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, said it’s critical to challenge the housing provisions “before other states adopt similar ideas, which could lead to a widespread assault on the voting rights of housing-insecure and vulnerable populations.”

“Elections lack integrity when eligible voters are disenfranchised,” said Snow, who is among the attorneys representing the plaintiffs. “This isn’t about voter fraud — it’s about preventing the ‘wrong’ type of voter from participating.”

In a news release, the committee asserted that the mailing address requirement would affect more than 10,000 Georgia voters — more than half of them Black people and nearly a third of them victims of domestic violence.

But Georgia Republican state Sen. Max Burns, who sponsored the law, called it “a testament to our commitment to restoring faith in Georgia’s elections” in a statement he issued when Kemp signed it.

In a March hearing, Burns argued that the rules designating the local registrar’s office, typically located in the county courthouse, as the mailing address for unhoused people would ensure their participation in the electoral process.

Republicans in the Georgia Senate declined a request to comment on the new rules.

A focal point

Georgia, which once again is poised to play a decisive role in determining who will occupy the White House, has become a focal point for election law changes aimed at reshaping the voting process ahead of Nov. 5.

A 2021 law gave Georgia residents less time to ask for mail-in ballots and added new ID requirements. It reduced the number of drop boxes and barred election officials and nonprofits from sending unsolicited mail-in ballot applications to voters.

The law also gave the State Election Board more power to determine the makeup of local election panels.

More than 63,000 Georgians have had their eligibility challenged since the law Kemp signed this year took effect in July, according to an analysis by The Associated Press that included all of the new rules for challenging eligibility that have taken effect, not just the one regarding people living at nonresidential addresses. In 2023 and the first half of 2024, before the law went into effect, about 18,000 voters were challenged, according to the analysis. However, fewer than 800 voters have been removed from the rolls since July, the news organization found.

Homelessness and voting

A person is not required to have a home to vote. In all states, a person must have a mailing address to receive voting information by mail, but it does not have to be a fixed home address. Many states allow homeless voters to list a shelter, a religious center, a post office box or the address of a friend or relative who lives nearby. Some states allow people to list a description of the place where they live — such as a park or intersection — as a home address, though not as a mailing address.

A new Utah law, for example, allows homeless people to use parks and intersections as addresses to vote. Colorado’s voter registration form allows people experiencing homelessness to list a common location where they sleep. Iowa’s registration form instructs voters without a permanent, established address to “describe where you reside.” And Ohio allows people without a fixed permanent address to list “shelter or other location” as a residence.

But numerous barriers make it nearly impossible for unhoused individuals to regularly participate in elections. Some states don’t require ID to register to vote, but most do require that you bring identification to vote in person, and many homeless people don’t have ID.

“We’ve had experiences where voters come in and say, ‘I’m homeless, and the only address I can use is a UPS store in a shopping center, because I live in my car in the parking lot,’” said Zach Manifold, the elections supervisor for Gwinnett County, Georgia. Manifold said it’s unclear how the new rule on homeless people will work out, “but the uncertainty it brings is concerning.”

Georgia Democratic state Sen. Derek Mallow voiced concerns that the provision on nonresidential addresses could create barriers for older people living in nursing homes and for military personnel deployed overseas.

“I have great concerns about the probable cause to challenge voters, especially at a nonresidential address,” Mallow said. “My grandmother, who owned her home until the day she died, lived in a nursing home. I would have an issue with somebody challenging her right to vote.”

This story first appeared in Stateline, a States Newsroom sibling outlet.

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