CLEVELAND — With big elections coming up this year in the state of Ohio, we want to help make sure everyone who is eligible and wants to vote has the opportunity to cast their ballots.
THE CLAIM
With that in mind, we came across this claim online: "Unhoused people can't register to vote in the state of Ohio."
THE SOURCES
To VERIFY whether this claim is true, we checked the following sources:
- Ohio Revised Code (ORC) Chapter 3503
- Cuyahoga County Board of Elections Community Outreach Department manager Mike West
THE RESEARCH
This claim has popped up because unhoused people — which is another phrase used to describe people who are experiencing homelessness — don't have a permanent physical address. That's relevant because your address determines your residency, and ORC 3503.01(A) requires voters to be a resident of Ohio for at least 30 days immediately before the election in which they want to vote.
More specifically, voters have to be a resident of the county and precinct in which they will actually cast their ballot.
In ORC 3503.02(I), however, the code clarifies that the address of a shelter can be used as a person's address for purposes of registering to vote, as long as the person who wants to use it "has been a consistent or regular inhabitant" of that shelter and "the person has the intention of returning" there.
We confirmed this to be true with Mike West, the manager of the Community Outreach Department for the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections. West told us, "We're happy there are provisions for people who may be in homeless situations so that they can still exercise their right to vote."
THE ANSWER
So we can VERIFY the claim that unhoused people can't register to vote in the state of Ohio is false.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Under ORC 3503.20(A)(2), people who can provide their name, date of birth, address, the last four digits of their social security number, and have either an Ohio driver's license or Ohio identification card number can register to vote online in the state of Ohio. The website to do that is olvr.ohiosos.gov.
Remember: Even if you've been registered to vote before, if your address has changed, you will need to update your registration before the voter registration deadline. That includes if you've switched shelters, in the case of unhoused people.