At my temporary job as an election clerk for the November general election, I’ve been tasked with doing same day voter registrations. We don’t expect many of them — at least at my polling site — but we do have to follow specific procedures in order to register someone on the same day.
One of our primary conditions for approving a same day voter registration request is confirmation of a local address within Dona Ana County.
Two Sundays ago, a homeless man named Keith came to our church and sat in on the service. He even put five pennies in our collection plate and asked for a copy of the Bible, which I gave him. I noticed last Sunday that he had signed our guest book. I’ve edited out his last name, phone number and information about a previous guest. Our homeless guest, listed his address simply as “under the bridge,” apparently meaning the bridge on I-10 over South Main adjacent to our church.
I doubt this would qualify as an approved local address, so Keith probably wouldn’t be able to register to vote. He did, however, seem to have a phone with an area code (575) number, which is proper for Dona Ana County. And I noticed that his home church is “open.”
He seemed like an intelligent, decent guy — much easier to deal with than previous homeless people I’ve written about who have appeared at our church. It just makes one wonder what led up to his current situation. I hope that some day his address will be more permanent than “under the bridge” and that he can register to vote if he wishes.
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