Stories of Marginalized Suppresed Voters

Are you ready to experience the complex barriers that different marginalized voters face? [[Click to choose your story]]

[[Francis]] You are a 35 year old single mother of an 11 year old girl with a chronic illness. You live in Florida and just became a citizen 6 months ago and are excited to participate in the presidential election. You speak/read beginner English and work at the post office. [[Ted]] You are a 45 year old Black man living in Florida. 16 years ago you served a year in jail for a felony conviction. [[Sarah]] You are a 25 year old woman who stays a homeless shelters in downtown New Orleans, Louisiana. You’ve been homeless on and off since your mom kicked you out of the house at 17. You want to participate in the state elections to vote on the increase of quantity and quality of homeless shelters because Louisiana doesn’t have enough since they don’t have a big homeless population.

First, you need to figure out how to register to vote, but you don’t know how to use the internet, so you can't research the different ways to do so by yourself. What should you do? 1. [[Ask your daughter for help researching ways to register]] 2. [[Decide it's not worth it and not register to vote]]

Your daughter researches online ways you can register. One way is to go to the DMV, but you can't afford to take half a day off for that. Another option is to register online or by sending the registration form through mail, but your daughter is too young to help you fill out the form. What should you do? 1. [[Ask your coworker for help in filling out the form]] 2. [[Give up]]

You wanted to vote for the Democratic presidential candidate that wanted to prioritize free health care. This would have helped you pay for your daughter's treatment. She ended up not getting elected and since you didn't vote, you can't help but think about how there was one less vote for her. Now you will continue to struggle giving your daughter a good treatment because you can't afford the hospital bills. Press back or [[Choose another story->Click to choose your story]]

Your coworker helps you get a registration form and helps you fill it out. You send it in the mail and become a registered voter! A couple weeks before election day, you have to move to a county 45 minutes away because you couldn't afford the rent. A week before election day, you have to ask for half the day off to vote during elecion day. So you will lose money. [[Let's go to election day]]

On election day, you take the bus from work to the polling location in your new county and show your passport as identification, but it still has your old address. They tell you that your address is outside of the county line, so you can't vote in this county. But you don’t have enough time to go to your old county, so they tell you that you will have to fill out a provisional ballot. You ask what is the difference, but all you understood was that your ballot might not be counted. What should you do? 1. [[Fill out the provisional ballot]] 2. [[Just go home, your ballot isn't even going to count...]]

You FINALLY fill out your ballot and select the Democratic presidential candidate! But then you realize that there's more to the ballot other than choosing the presidential candidate. You don’t understand the other options on the ballot and you check the time and realize that you are running late to pick up your daughter from school. What should you do? 1. [[Find someone to pick up your daughter to have time to try to figure out the other options]] 2. [[Turn in the ballot with just having voted for the presidential candidate]]

Your friend picks up your daughter so you have time to try to read over the ballot more carefully. But you still don’t understand much so you just select all the Democratic boxes. You FINALLY get to turn in your ballot! [[What now? -> What now for Francis]]

You got to vote for the Democratic presidential candidate that wanted to prioritize free health care to help you pay for your daughter's treatment. She ended up not getting elected and you wonder if your ballot was counted and if you could have helped more by voting in the other categories. Now you will continue to struggle giving your daughter a good treatment because you can't afford the hospital bills. For the next election, you know that you need to update your address before election day and want to inform yourself more of the rest of the ballot. [[Go back and choose another story->Click to choose your story]]

When you met for the first time with your parole officer, he told you that to have your voting rights restored, you needed a full pardon, conditional pardon, or restoration of civil rights by the governor. He said that it would be unlikely for you to get a pardon approved, but you could try if you wanted to. What should you do? 1. [[Test your luck anyway and apply for the pardon]] 2. [[Trust your parole officer’s word and decide its not worth the trouble->Move forward 15 years]]

You apply for a restoration of civil rights and after waiting 3 years for a hearing, you can hear in the Board’s voices that they are not on your side. You are denied restoration and were never even informed that you could reapply in two years, so you don’t. [[Move forward 15 years]]

It’s 15 years later and you’re getting your weekly haircut at your barbershop. While your barber is cutting your hair, he starts talking about the latest debate and asks you which candidate you’re leaning towards voting for. What should you say? 1. [[Tell him that you are not eligible to vote because of your record]] 2. [[Say that you are not interested in politics but do not mention your record]]

Your barber says that he used to be in the same boat after he was released from prison and thought he couldn’t vote. But then he tells you that last year, Florida passed an amendment that restored the voting rights for past felons. [[So what now?]]

Your barber opens up and tells you that he is also an ex-con and informs you that last year, Florida passed an amendment that restored the voting rights for past felons. [[So what now?->So what now?]]

After 15 years of not being able to vote, you finally re-register and can participate in the upcoming presidential election. The passing of Amendment 4 restored the voting rights of 1.7 million people in Florida, 23.3% of which were African Americans, who make up only 12% of Florida’s population. [[Go back and choose another story->Click to choose your story]]

You want to go to the DMV to ask how you can register to vote. You ask a volunteer at your shelter where you sleep if he can please give you the directions to the closest DMV. It’s almost 7 miles away, so it’s a 2 hour walk or 1 hour bus ride. You currently only have $3 which you were going to use to eat for the next couple of days. What should you do? 1. [[Walk the 2 hours to the DMV]] 2. [[Wait to save up money for the $3 one-day bus pass]] 3. [[Decide it’s not worth it to walk or spend money -> What now for Sarah]]

After the long journey to the DMV, you then have to wait in line for an hour just to get to speak to anyone. When you finally get to the counter and ask how you can register, they tell you that you have come to the right place! They ask you for identification, as it is required to register in Louisiana, but you do not have any of the valid forms. Although you are at the DMV and could theoretically apply to get a state ID, you cannot afford the $24 and do not have any of the required documents (birth certificate/passport/SSN card). [[You leave the DMV and go back to your shelter]]

You waited a couple weeks to be able to save $3 to spend on the one-day bus pass. You take the bus to the DMV, but when you get there, they tell you the voter registration period has ended because the elections are less than 30 days away. [[What now? -> What now for Sarah]]

At your shelter, you tell a volunteer your struggle in trying to vote. He then suggests for you to visit the Ozanam Inn because he’s heard that they are a non-profit, direct service agency that assists homeless people in getting their state ID, and for free. [[Go to Ozanam Inn]]

When you arrive at Ozanam Inn, you ask if you can apply to get a free state ID. They tell you that they can only replace IDs and ask if you’ve ever had a state ID before. You tell them that when you were 16, you did have a driver’s license but lost it years ago. They say that is fine and give you a form and tell you that you also need to bring back a letter of homelessness written by your shelter. Once those items are completed, somebody from the DMV can pick them up from the agency. What should you do? 1. [[Complete the form and go back to ask your shelter for a letter of homelessness and then bring it back to the agency]] 2. [[Decide the process is too much work -> What now for Sarah]]

You got to vote for the Democratic presidential candidate that wanted to prioritize free health care to help you pay for your daughter's treatment. She ended up not getting elected and you wonder if your ballot was counted and if you could have helped more by not selecting the other categories at random. Now you will continue to struggle giving your daughter a good treatment because you can't afford the hospital bills. For the next election, you know that you need to update your address before election day and want to inform yourself more of the rest of the ballot. [[Go back and choose another story->Click to choose your story]]

After the election, the initiative to increase the quantity and quality of homeless shelters didn’t get funding and since you didn't vote, you can't help but think about how there was one less vote for this. Now you will continue to struggle in finding a shelter in time before they reach capacity. This is unfortunately the reality for many of the 553,000 homeless people in America. [[Go back to choose a different path->Sarah]] or [[choose another story->Click to choose your story]]

When you submit your form, they tell you it will take at least a month for your application to get processed, so they suggest that you come back after a month. You wait a month to go back and when you do, they have your free state ID! [[You can now register to vote!!!]]

You go to the DMV and register to vote. When elections come around, you go to the poll closest to your shelter and finally vote for the first time! After the election, the initiative to increase the quantity and quality of homeless shelters did get funding. Now you are able to find more shelters to stay the night in and they all have better resources. Because of your persistence, you were able to vote. But this is not necessarily the reality of the 553,000 homeless people in America. [[Go back and choose another story->Click to choose your story]]

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Are you ready to experience the complex barriers that different marginalized voters face?

Click to choose your story