If people with disabilities voted at the same rate as the rest of Americans, there would have been at least five million more votes in the last Presidential election—including an additional 310,000 New Yorkers. That is the message from Jim Dickson, Vice President of the National Organization on Disability and Director of the "Vote! 2000" campaign.
"People with disabilities are the sleeping giant of New York politics," Dickson noted at a June 21st press conference in Albany. Dickson is spearheading a national non-partisan effort to get persons with disabilities registered to vote and out to the polls. A third of the 35 million voting-age persons with disabilities in the United States are not registered, according to Dickson, and another one third are registered but did not vote in the last election.
Despite the requirement of the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) of 1993 that service agencies provide voter registration opportunities for clients, a national poll indicates that 75% of persons with disabilities report that they have never been asked to register to vote by a service provider.
To promote registration in New York State, a number of service providers and advocacy groups are joining "Vote! 2000." The local effort will be called the "Y2Vote" campaign. Organizers include the New York State Independent Living Council and the New York State Association of Community and Residential Agencies (NYSACRA). "Y2Vote" will register to vote people with disabilities, their families, and agency staff. Plans call for regional coordinators across the state to train representatives at individual agencies to hold voter registration drives.
The kick-off press conference on June 21st in Albany was followed by an initial planning session led by Dickson and attended by representatives of several statewide disability networks. The mental health advocacy community was represented by Harvey Rosenthal, executive director of the New York Association of Psychiatric Rehabilitation Services (NYAPRS), and Joseph Glazer, president of the Mental Health Association in New York State (MHANYS).Richard Warrender, the New York State Advocate for Persons with Disabilities, also participated in the planning session.
During the planning session, Dickson provided details on how to deal with barriers to registration and voting for persons with disabilities, and on how to organize educational programs and get-out-the-vote (GOTV) efforts. The National Organization on Disability is working with election officials across the nation to promote accessible voting sites.
More information on "Vote! 2000" is available on-line at www.nod.org.