Voting Updates for August 8, 2012

Thanks to Bishop Cosgrove Center, Continue Life, Norma Herr Center, North Point Transitional, Railton House, St. Malachi, Transitional Housing Inc., and Y-Haven that all turned in registration forms last week.  

A few voting questions came up over the last week:

1.  Most of your clients are already registered to vote, but they most likely need to change their address.  If they cannot receive mail at the location they are registered, their mail will go back to the Board of Elections and the board will mark them as inactive.  This could result in them voting by provisional ballot—the least attractive option to assure that a vote is counted.  If they need to change their address use the same registration form for new voters and those changing their address.

2. If your client wants to vote by mail, which we believe is the best option for homeless people, they need to fill out the vote by mail application and send it to the Board.  You can get a copy of the vote by mail from the Cuyahoga Board of Elections or on our website.  You can print these out and make copies of these forms for your clients.  If you turn these in with the registration you should staple the two forms together so that they do not get separated over at the board of elections. 

3. Finally, here are a few more details on training that Ohio Votes is hosting in Cleveland.  You can use the link below to sign up your staff for this training.  There are CEUs available to social workers.  (All of the links are below--for some reason they were not working in the body of this announcement). 

Thanks to everyone for the help with this important effort to get everyone registered to vote.

Cleveland Voter Engagement Training Sign Up

Nonprofits and Voter Engagement

Tuesday September 11, 2012, 1:30PM - 3:30PM

Trinity Cathedral
2230 Euclid Avenue
Cleveland, OH

• ATTEND the free OhioVOTES voter engagement training event
• HEAR how nonprofits can be active in voter engagement and guidelines for 501(c)(3) organizations on being nonpartisan
• LEARN ways to educate and motivate your constituents to vote and the latest rules on voting in Ohio
• BUILD stronger communities and neighborhoods through nonpartisan voter engagement

In partnership with the Cuyahoga County-Board of Elections, Neighborhood Leadership Institute, Ohio Association of Food Banks, Ohio Association of Community Health Centers, Public Children's Services Association of Ohio and The George Gund Foundation.

NEOCH website on voting: http://www.neoch.org/homeless-voting/

Cuyahoga Board of Elections: http://boe.cuyahogacounty.us/en-US/vote-by-mail.aspx

Here is the direct link to the Ohio Votes sign up for voter engagement training http://www.nonprofitvote.org/voter-engagement-training-cleveland.html