Richard Hoard is the Budget Director of the Urban Ministry Center in Charlotte, North Carolina. Attorneys representing the Justice Department called him to the stand to describe the challenges North Carolina’s strict photo ID law pose for the homeless and those living in extreme poverty.
In his testimony, Hoard said the Urban Ministry Center helps six to 12 homeless “neighbors” secure personal documents each week.
“The living conditions of the homeless and the poor are considerably different” from middle class and upper class lives, he said.
Hoard said homeless voters keep their personal documents in backpacks and pockets, where they can be easily lost or stolen. For them, getting a photo ID can mean navigating a maze of agencies and online applications.
“The neighbors have difficulty with these forms,” he said.
Tracking down the supporting documents required to get a photo ID can mean numerous trips to multiple agencies. The homeless don’t have cars, Hoard reminded the court.
“Using public transportation is a time-consuming proposition,” he said. Traveling to just one agency and back can take an entire day.
Hoard offers his clients a letter written on Urban Ministry Center letterhead as proof of residence. As of 2014, he said, if a homeless voter presents that letter along with a birth certificate or other acceptable ID to the Department of Motor Vehicles, they can get a photo ID for voting. Homeless voters who have lost their IDs can present his letter and get a replacement.
Hoard said the most difficult cases to resolve are poor and homeless residents who were born in another state, but lack a birth certificate. He cited the case of one client who had a Social Security card, but was born in South Carolina and had no birth certificate. The client had previously registered to vote, but could not obtain a VIVA-compliant photo ID without a birth certificate. Despite over four years of work with South Carolina agencies, the man still did not have a birth certificate.
In addition to helping secure documents, Hoard said, the Urban Ministry Center hosts voter registration drives.
During his cross-examination, Defense attorney Butch Bowers asked Hoard if he was familiar with the reasonable impediment declaration. Had he held any events to educate his clients about the new option?
Hoard said he had not heard of the reasonable impediment declaration before Tuesday and had never told his clients about it.
It would be “much easier” to help his clients get a free photo ID from the Department of Motor Vehicles than to expect them to fill out a form at the polls, he said.
“They can’t do it on their own”
Personal papers tend to get lost or stolen “when you’re carrying everything you own around in a backpack,” Michelle Kennedy testified on Wednesday afternoon.
Kennedy is the Executive Director of the Interactive Resource Center in Greensboro, North Carolina (IRC). Like the Urban Ministry Center in Charlotte, the IRC offers its cleints a program it calls Document Recovery Services.
In her testimony, Kennedy called the photo ID services at the Department of Motor Vehicles “inconsistent.” One client might get an ID without presenting any documents while another would be sent away empty-handed, she said.
Kennedy said she often had to contact the DMV herself to figure out what documents the client needed.
She said the cost of obtaining birth certificates and other papers could be “prohibitive” and that navigating the various applications and agencies could be confusing.
“One of the reasons that they’re coming to us in the first place is they can’t do it on their own,” she said.
The IRC also hosts voter registration drives and candidate forums, and offers to escort registered voters to the local courthouse during early voting, but IRC staff do not assist clients in the voting booth.
Voting is not part of the IRC’s primary mission and assisting voters at the polls could create “liability issues,” she said.
Kennedy said she contacted the Guilford County Board of Elections to ask about VIVA voting requirements three months ago, but was never given any materials describing the reasonable impediment declaration.
When she was shown a draft declaration form in the courtroom, Kennedy said it was only the second time she had seen it.
She identified some problems a homeless voter might have filling out the form. The declaration asks for the last four digits of the voter’s Social Security number, and homeless voters don’t always know those numbers, she said.
Unlike voters with college and professional backgrounds, she explained, poor and homeless voters don’t memorize and use their Social Security number as a matter of course.
The declaration form also asks for the voter’s address. Kennedy said that while clients could use the IRC address, technically it was a “commercial industrial” address, not a residence, and this has caused problems with other government forms in the past.
During cross-examination, Defense attorney Butch Bowers suggested Kennedy couldn’t be sure her clients wouldn’t be able to fill out the form.
Kennedy said she was “absolutely” sure her clients could not.
Bowers said Kennedy should have staff help the clients with the form.
Kennedy repeated that voting was outside the mission of the IRC and the organization did not have enough staff to assist every client with the form.
She told Bowers that was the job of the Board of Elections.
“I would disagree,” Bowers replied.
