I contacted both Eureka City Clerk Pam Powell and Humboldt County Clerk/Recorder/ Registrar of Voters Kelly Sanders regarding this post. Ms. Powell deferred to Ms. Sanders.
This is Ms. Sanders'response:
"If the person is not living in a residence or a shelter, they can use the street coordinates closest in proximity to where they are staying. It can be a street corner (Example: 3rd & A Streets, Eureka). They should not use a business address (non-shelter) as a residential address. If a business is allowing them to use their address to receive mail, they can put that address down as their mailing address."
I requested further clarification from Ms. Sanders:
"They need to list the location where they live.
We need to know where you live so we know what precinct you live in and what districts you are eligible to vote on. "
"A PO Box or a business address can be used for your mailing address."
https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displayText.xhtml?lawCode=ELEC&division=2.&title=&part=&chapter=1.&article=2.
Excerpt:
"(b) A person does not gain a domicile in any precinct into which he or she comes for temporary purposes merely, without the intention of making that precinct his or her home."
HACHR is not a shelter, it is a needle exchange program. Unlike the Rescue Mission or Betty Chinn Center, places like Free Meal or the Ink People or HACHR provide a temporary service and people do not reside at such facilities.
ReplyDeleteGiven that Eureka residents will only be voting for candidates in the ward they live in; even if HACHR's address could be used, it can skew election results.
My post and the comment above was clear to most people. Some people read and see what they want or don't bother to read it all.
Delete1. If all HACHR is doing is allowing people to use their facility as a mailing address, fine. That is not clear from their post.
2. the "and voter registration" is unclear, what does that mean? Does that mean as a residential address? Would this have been checked if this issue was not raised?
3.HACHR is in the Fifth Ward. How do we know HACHR is not recruiting for one candidate vs another?
4. HACHR is a needle exchange program. There are plenty of other places people can get their mail if they are living on the streets. Why is HACHR so political, if all they want to do is help addicts?