The Landes Report: Apr 3, 2025 (edited Apr 15, 2025)
Federal Agency & States Help Homeless (& Countless Others?) Evade Voter “Residency & ID" Requirements
By Lynn
Landes
Philadelphia, PA / lynnlandes@gmail.com /
714-204-2690
https://www.protocolsfordemocracy.org/Vote.gov.htm
https://www.protocolsfordemocracy.org/articles&videos.htm
President Trump should know that under the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA), Vote.gov is currently encouraging and enabling the homeless to register to vote, even though they do not need to meet the same “residency” or “identification” requirements that other citizens must meet, per most state laws. Besides being against the spirit and intent of our Constitution and its various “voting rights” Amendments, doesn’t that blatantly violate the 14th Amendment’s “equal protection of the laws”?
Worse yet, anyone can take advantage of this loophole, which basically allows people to vote multiple times using different aliases obtained by claiming to be homeless. These homeless voters could also include millions of illegal immigrants. President Trump's Executive Order (March 25, 2025) addresses the “citizenship” issue, as it requires prospective voters to show proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote. And Congress, of course, needs to follow-up with supportive legislation.
However, the importance of residency and identification requirements seems to have slipped under the public radar and has yet to gain the Trump administration's or Congress's attention. Most states require a 30-day residency for prospective voters, which by any measure is extremely minimal. However, citizens must also provide proof of residency in the form of rent receipts or utility bills, but a P.O. Box is not allowed.
Unbelievably, the homeless don’t need to meet any of these residency requirements in many if not most states. In fact, the homeless can use the address of an entity, such as a church, to serve as their residence even though they don’t live there and only use it as a place to receive their mail, similar to a PO Box! Which, of course, other citizens are banned from using, and for good reason as P.O. Boxes do not prove residency.
For example, in the heart of Philadelphia, four blocks away from City Hall, in Ward 5, Division 9, The Broad Street Ministry, now called Broad Street Love, boasts, "Since 2017, Broad Street Love has been responsible for the largest number of registered voters at any single address in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania." Currently, 2,279 "homeless" voters are registered at Broad Street Love, although no homeless appear to live there. Nor do their 2,279 registered homeless voters appear to live on the streets in the small 2-block area that comprises Division 9. I can confirm this because I live in the neighborhood. Interestingly, there appears to be no regulatory mechanism in place to find out where these people are actually living.
The Philadelphia Office of the City Commissioners has confirmed that the homeless are not required under state law to present any identification in order to be registered to vote. I was told by staff that all the homeless have to do is to “firmly” state that they don't have any identification, which means to ‘affirm’ and/or fill out an affidavit.
That said, I didn’t find any statutes that allow for any exceptions for the homeless regarding registration requirements under PA Code Title 25 – Voter Registration, Chapter 13 - Registration. (a) Eligibility.-- An individual who will be at least 18 years of age on the day of the next election, who has been a citizen of the United States for at least one month prior to the next election and who has resided in this Commonwealth and the election district where the individual offers to vote for at least 30 days prior to the next ensuing election and has not been confined in a penal institution for a conviction of a felony within the last five years shall be eligible to register as provided in this chapter.
However, upon further inspection, Chapter 13 includes a giant loophole under § 1301, Qualifications to register. (b) Effect.-No individual shall be permitted to vote at any election unless the individual is registered under this subsection, except as provided by law or by order of a court of common pleas. So, I’m assuming that there may be case law out there somewhere that’s giving the City of Philadelphia and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania the authority they need to grant exceptions to register the homeless as voters. If I find it, I’ll update this article.
Regarding identification requirements, Pennsylvania, like many other states, makes it easy for the homeless to get a state ID card, again without any identification or proof of residency. Here’s the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation “PA Homeless Photo Identification Card Fact Sheet HOW CAN A HOMELESS INDIVIDUAL APPLY FOR A PHOTO IDENTIFICATION CARD”, which states, “In the case of homeless individuals, PennDOT will accept a letter from a shelter indicating an individual is staying at the shelter or uses the shelter as an address of residency to pick up mail”, which again is something other citizens cannot do by law.
I've spoken with several election attorneys who do not seem much bothered by this situation. All I can say is, that same detached attitude was common back in 2002, when I became one of the first journalists to break the story on the vulnerabilities of computerized voting machines and other nontransparent methods of voting. Most attorneys I spoke with at that time didn’t really appreciate that a nontransparent voting system was a massive threat to our democracy. They do now.
President Trump is trying to end all of this election insanity. As I am not part of his inner circle, I will depend on others to inform him about this issue, and as soon as possible, hopefully. Broad Street Love is not the only church or non-profit registering homeless voters who do not live at their address or even in their division. This is, of course, a huge opportunity for election fraud. And it is happening all across the nation with the help of the Vote.gov federal program. Under our Constitution, residency and identification requirements should apply to all prospective voters equally in order to prevent voter fraud. It’s called “Equal Under The Law”, words that are written above the main entrance of the U.S. Supreme Court Building. Which is where this issue is very likely headed. And the sooner the better.
Who knows how many people have been allowed to claim that they are homeless and get IDs this way (without proving citizenship or residency), and then register to vote? Countless people can take advantage of this situation and no one would be the wiser.
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