Should one experience pushback from a poll worker, they can call the National Election Protection Hotline at 866-OUT-VOTE (866-687-8683) for assistance. Folks can also cast a provisional ballot, but the steps one must take after submitting a provisional ballot differ by state. (More information for what to do after casting yours is available through the National Conference of State Legislatures website.)
Another strategy for trans folks who wish to vote in person is showing up to the polls with a group, according to “Transforming the Polls,” a campaign organized by the ACLU of Indiana. Adrienne Cassidy, a 49-year-old trans woman, voted for the first time in 2018 after hearing that the ACLU was organizing a group of trans folks and allies to head to the polls together. “I felt so safe walking in to vote with this incredible group of people and was so proud of myself for finally exercising my right,” she said of the experience.
Though Cassidy was able to successfully cast a ballot in 2018, the fact that it took her so long to feel comfortable heading to the polls speaks to another means by which trans folks are dissuaded from engaging electoral politics: intimidation. In a recent interview with Bloomberg CityLab, NCTE executive director Mara Keisling explained how trans folks might be deterred from heading to the polls through the presence of Trump supporters, who have been encouraged to patrol polling places. “The voter suppression techniques that the current Republican leadership is using and the President himself, they’re not about challenging people at the polling places: they’re about getting people to not go in the first place,” said Keisling. “That impacts trans people probably more than other people.”
For these reasons, many advocates recommend voting by mail, if possible. Yet even this strategy, which circumnavigates the problem of voter ID laws being leveraged at the polls, is not a perfect solution. Voting by mail is an especially arduous undertaking for those experiencing housing insecurity, a population in which trans folks are disproportionately represented. As much as one-third of trans folks in America have experienced houseless at some point during their lives, according to the U.S Transgender Survey.
Although all 50 states are legally obligated to make voting accommodations for those experiencing houselessness, the reality is that voter turnout has been shown to decline precipitously the lower one’s income is. More than that, specific government actions such as voter purges — controversial practices that see the state remove those who haven’t participated in recent elections or responded to official notices from voter rolls — exacerbate the already numerous barriers to voting faced by those experiencing houselessness.
“People tend to be more engaged politically when they’re stable, when they’re invested in a community,” Astra Taylor, an expert in American disenfranchisement, told Vox earlier this year. “All of these things compound when you are more likely to be poor, you’re less likely to own property, and you’re more transient. [They] make it really hard to register to vote.”
Still, there are options available to folks experiencing housing insecurity who wish to cast a ballot. Depending on your state, you likely are able to use a mailing address such as a service provider or a shelter to receive your ballot in the mail or to register and vote in person.
Nevertheless, housing insecurity is just one of several systemic factors that encumber trans folks’ ability to cast a ballot. Felon disenfranchisement laws constitute another. Like voter ID regulations, these restrictions vary widely by state. In Maine, for instance, anyone can vote, regardless of their past. In Iowa, on the other hand, anyone with a prior felony conviction is permanently disenfranchised. (The only way for Iowans with a prior felony conviction to gain back their voting rights is through direct intervention from the Governor, which can and has happened.) Most states have regulations that fall between these extremes, with some allowing anyone not currently incarcerated to vote while others have more complex restrictions.
“Over 5 million people in the United States are unable to vote because of a felony conviction,” says Bobby Hoffman, deputy director of voting rights policy at the ACLU. That’s more people than the total populations — not simply those of voting age — of Wyoming, Vermont, Alaska, North Dakota, and South Dakota combined. These laws, Hoffman explains, fit into the broader pattern of trans voter suppression insofar as trans folks and especially Black trans women, trans women of color, and indigenous trans women — are disproportionately impacted by America’s “discriminatory system of mass incarceration.”
