By: Sasha Stumacher

As politicians desperately try to attract voters in the months before the presidential election, one segment of the population that doesn't seem to be on anybody's call list: the homeless.

"It took blacks 400 years to get the right to vote, it took women 70 years," explained Michael Stoops, project director at the National Coalition for the Homeless in Washington D.C. "We've only been working at this for twenty years."

The NCH has been trying to establish the voting rights of homeless people across the country with the intent of helping them play a more active role in government.

"Public officials should always be in tune with the needs of homeless people and the things that need to be done to encourage homeless people to get involved in the political system," Stoop said, surprised that vote-seekers should so completely ignore a group that numbers approximately two million nationwide.

"If you can, when you're meeting with elected officials, say that you were able to assist x amount of people to vote, that's a pretty substantial statement to them. They're more likely to listen if you are helping to get out the vote, if you're contributing to potential constituents," explained Brian Davis of the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless.

Three times over the past eight years, in 1992, 1994, and 1996, the House of Representatives rejected H.R. 74, a bill introduced by Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), which called for coordination of homeless voting rights at the federal instead of the state level.

"The Republicans wrongly believe that this is just another attempt to find a way to get more Democrats to the polls," Stoops said. "Poor people and homeless people, who are predominantly minority, tend to vote more Democratic than Republican, so the Republicans see it as a partisan endeavor. That's why they raised the issue of voter fraud, etc." They saw it as an attempt to get more Democrats added to the voting rolls.

No Republicans familiar with the initiative were available for comment.

Though the bill is officially dead, the NCH is working to have it reintroduced next January. The bill was not introduced in the current session of Congress because it is an election year, making the prospect of passage even less likely. At this point, the organization thinks the bill would do better if it were included in an omnibus bill with other unrelated proposals.