The Homeless Voter: Political Behavior of the Least Among Us

• In Event: Homeownership, Residence, and Political Behavior

Abstract

Housing is no prerequisite for voting, but homeless Americans face unique barriers to exercising this right. To date, there is almost no systematic knowledge about the political behavior of America’s more than half a million homeless people. We fill this gap using nationwide administrative data from Housing and Urban Development and state voter files to generate novel estimates of homeless voter registration, partisan identification, and electoral turnout. We use these data to explore how state and city-level policies shape homeless registration and participation rates, demonstrating the role of shelter organizations as sites of voter registration and quantifying the effect of more stringent registration requirements. This analysis sheds light on the degree to which homeless Americans exercise their right to vote and its variation across the United States.

Authors

• Jacob Brown, Harvard University

• Michael James Zoorob, Harvard University