When I sat down with Mike for an interview at a homeless shelter in Northern Virginia, he shook his head and chuckled.
asserted
he → sit → head
“The staff told me someone was coming here to ask about voting, thought you might be someone from ICE,” he said.
uncertain
he → tell → ICE
“Your mind runs wild, and you start thinking, ‘Well, this administration is interested in voter fraud.’”
asserted
administration → run → fraud
Mike (not his real name) is 58 years old and for the last seven months, he and his family have been staying at a local shelter, the result of a complicated mixture of medical and domestic issues, and soaring rental prices in Northern Virginia that led to the loss of their home in Fairfax County and their inability to find another place to live (he preferred not to be specific about his family’s circumstances).
asserted
he → stay → circumstances
Born and raised in Virginia and a registered voter, Mike rattles off party breakdowns of obscure local districts and ballot measures he once voted for (and against) more than 10 years ago—he even remembers who he voted for in his first election when he turned 18.
asserted
he → bear → election
I’ve voted for Republicans, Democrats, and Independents,” he tells me, “but I’ve always thought it’s important.”
asserted
it → vote → me
Now in temporary housing, Mike feels lucky they have beds, three free meals a day, a case manager, storage for medical and identifying documents, and Wi-Fi.
asserted
they → feel → documents
“A place like this,” he said, referring to the shelter in the Virginia suburbs, “can save someone.”
asserted
he → say → someone
But now he wonders what this will mean on Election Day.
asserted
this → wonder → Day
“How do you vote if you don’t have a place [to live]?” he asked, with the midterms only a week away.
asserted
he → vote → midterms
He’s also unsure about where to cast his ballot, even though he had registered to vote when he still had a home.
asserted
he → ’ → home
“I literally am trying to think of where the nearest polling place to vote is,” he said.
asserted
he → try → ?
“I’m trying to think where the nearest school is around here.”
asserted
school → try → ?
Mike’s situation is better than many who are unhoused or are experiencing unstable housing.
asserted
who → experience → housing
In Virginia, an estimated 7,141 people are homeless on a given night, and Street Sense Media estimates that number is on the rise.
asserted
number → give → rise
But even with resources like Wi-Fi and a case manager, navigating the voting process without permanent housing for people throughout the country can feel downright impossible, especially for a demographic that receives so little outreach.
asserted
that → navigate → outreach
“We hear a lot about voting these days, but we don’t hear enough about the impact on people who are experiencing homelessness,” said Marcy Thompson, vice president for programs and policy at the National Alliance to End Homelessness.
asserted
Thompson → hear → Homelessness
In a country where less than 10 percent of the 745,652 unhoused people typically cast a ballot in any given election year, Thompson said “losing your home should not equal losing your voice.
asserted
losing → cast → voice
Nationwide, people experiencing homelessness face a gauntlet of barriers when trying to exercise their right to vote, from strict voter registration guidelines and ID laws, to maintaining correct and up-to-date documentation, to just physically getting to the polling site.
asserted
people → experience → site
Some states, like California, Washington, Vermont, and New Jersey, are actively trying to make voting more accessible.
asserted
voting → try → California
But in others—Florida, Kansas, and Mississippi, for example—casting a ballot if unhoused is nearly insurmountable.
asserted
casting → cast → ballot
A state like Virginia, where I spoke to Mike, with its blend of expansive and restrictive voting laws, often sows further confusion and uncertainty.
asserted
I → speak → confusion
In the lead-up to the 2026 midterm elections, the Trump administration and Congressional Republicans have attempted to limit voting access.
asserted
administration → attempt → access
The controversial Republican-led Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act would have required eligible voters to present a passport or birth certificate at the time of registration.
asserted
Act → lead → registration
And while that bill has stalled in Congress, Arizona, New Hampshire, Louisiana, South Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming have already enacted their own “show your papers” laws that implement the same ID requirements, even though millions of Americans lack easy access to documents proving citizenship.
asserted
millions → stall → citizenship
Research from the Brennan Center for Justice has found that more states have passed expansive voter laws than restrictive ones since the start of 2026, but the federal government’s attempts to usurp states’ constitutional control could undermine these laws as well as public confidence in elections.
uncertain
attempts → find → elections
As Donald Whitehead, executive director of the National Coalition for the Homeless, explained, “The stricter the requirement, the more likely they are screening out people experiencing homelessness, and the people who are the most disenfranchised.
asserted
who → explain → homelessness
It prevents people from being able to exercise their right to vote.”
asserted
It → prevent → right
When Mother Jones ran a piece about unhoused voters in 2019, the state had some of the strictest voting laws in the country after a coalition of Republican legislators passed reforms to keep the state red.
asserted
coalition → run → state
But in the last two years with a Democratic statehouse, Virginia has enacted eight new voting laws that include a statewide ban on immigration enforcement activities within 500 yards of a polling place.
asserted
that → enact → place
The state also offers a 45-day early voting period and same day voter registration.
asserted
state → offer → period
At the same time, Virginia is one of 38 states that require voter identification, a hurdle that can turn a small technicality for voters with fixed addresses into an impossibility for someone experiencing homelessness.
asserted
that → require → homelessness
Voter ID laws in states like Alabama and Indiana are much stricter than those in Virginia, requiring a driver’s license, passport, or military ID.
asserted
laws → require → license
Virginia offers voters the option to use non-government documents like a utility bill or bank statement—documents often inaccessible to someone experiencing homelessness.
asserted
Virginia → offer → homelessness
People living in unstable housing, such as encampments or tents, might be more vulnerable to theft, street sweeps, and encampment closures, all of which, Thompson said, adds up to “more lost documents.”
uncertain
Thompson → live → documents
Pam Pearson, director and general counsel of VoteRiders’ ID Assistance, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that focuses on voter education and voter ID assistance, calls the challenge of maintaining documentation while unhoused a “circle of doom.
asserted
that → focus → doom
The more unstable [someone’s] housing is, the more likely they are to lose those documents.”
asserted
they → lose → documents
She works with eligible voters directly to help them get essential documents like birth certificates and drivers’ licenses.
asserted
them → work → certificates
“My birth certificate and social security card are in a little lockbox,” she said, “I don’t carry them with me.”
asserted
I → say → me
But for someone who is unhoused, “they’re in situations where they have to carry everything with them.
asserted
they → ’re → them
…and 31 more, not listed.
The Aporia
