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Sent: Thursday, March 11, 2004 8:53 AM

Subject: [DisabilityParty] The Power of the Disability Vote

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From: "Justice For All Moderator" <jfa@...>
To: <justice@...>
Sent: Wednesday, March 10, 2004 12:11 PM
Subject: The Power of the Disability Vote


> "The Power of the Disability Vote"
>
> Following is an excellent analysis by NOD's Brewster
> Thackeray regarding the impact of the disability community
> in the 2000 presidential election and the difference the
> disability community may make in the 2004 election.  Let's
> make sure we are all registered to vote, and then follow-up
> by casting our votes, to continue making the disability
> community a voting block that can't be ignored!
>
> Jonathan Young
> JFA Moderator, AAPD
>
> ===============================
>
> The Disability Vote Made History in 2000. In 2004, It May
> Do So Again.
>
> By Brewster Thackeray
> Vice President & Director of Communications
> The National Organization on Disability
>
> What politician can afford to overlook one-fifth of the
> nation's voting-aged population? That massive slice of the
> electoral pie comprises the roughly 40 million Americans
> with disabilities who are of voting age. Though not as
> cohesively identified as other minority groups, the
> disability vote is one that politicians ignore at their
> peril.
>
> The 2000 presidential election proved the significant role
> voters with disabilities can play. Historically, only about
> a third of people with disabilities vote in American
> Presidential contests, but this surged to 41 percent in
> that year's race, according to an N.O.D./Harris poll
> conducted at the time. Grassroots "Get out the disability
> vote" efforts deserve much of the credit. So do organized
> campaigns to ensure that people with disabilities were
> informed of their right to register and vote; efforts to
> ensure that service providers met their legal requirement
> to offer their clients the opportunity to do so; community
> efforts to make polling places and voting machines more
> accessible; and, one can assume, the issues and positions
> that the candidates presented to voters.
>
> The week before the 2000 election, a Harris poll conducted
> for the National Organization on Disability found Vice
> President Al Gore trailing Texas Governor George W. Bush,
> 43 to 48 percent. But that same poll found that people with
> disabilities overwhelmingly supported Gore, 54 to 30
> percent.
>
> Assuming that those latter percentages were indicative of
> how people voted, and knowing that 41 percent of those with
> disabilities did vote (comprising 16.4 million people),
> Bush received almost five million votes from this
> community. Gore got nearly nine million.
>
> That difference of four million votes made a huge impact in
> this exceptionally close election. With them, Gore won the
> popular vote. Without them, he would not have.
>
> What if people with disabilities had voted at the same rate
> as other Americans - just over 50 percent - while their
> split on the candidates remained constant? Bush would then
> have had six million votes to Gore's 10.8 million from this
> community. The gap between them would have increased by
> less than a million votes, but recall how close this race
> was (Gore took the popular vote by 544,000), and that well
> under a thousand votes would have tipped Florida's final
> count. If only Florida voters with disabilities had turned
> out at the same rate as other Florida voters, the Supreme
> Court would never have had a case to decide.
>
> If people with disabilities voted at the rate of other
> Americans, Gore would have had a more decisive victory in
> the popular vote and won the electoral college, likely
> without challenge. By contrast, if people with disabilities
> had voted at the lower rate they did in 1996 (31%), Bush
> would have won the popular vote and secured the Electoral
> College too.
>
>
> What message does this give the candidates running for
> President in 2004?
>
> According to the Harris survey, the now-incumbent
> President, George W. Bush, did not fare well with the
> disability vote in 2000. However, he secured a significant
> minority of this population segment's vote, which he
> needed. His 2004 campaign should know better than to take
> this voting segment for granted, and must reach out to it
> aggressively (unless he is so confident of a landslide that
> he is willing to cede much of it to the Democrats). Of
> course, heading into an election season that will demand he
> focus on domestic issues, disability issues could be a
> natural focal point for the president's "compassionate
> conservative" ideology. As he demonstrated in unveiling his
> New Freedom Initiative in 2001, this President knows that
> disability rights have a cross-partisan appeal. 
>
> During the 2003-2004 primary season, the Democratic
> candidates were quite responsive on disability issues. Just
> as they made efforts to connect with other minority groups,
> including women, Hispanics, African-Americans, and
> homosexuals, they did substantial outreach to the
> disability community and its supporters. Howard Dean took
> an early stand when he released his disability platform on
> the ADA's anniversary in July, 2003 - the earliest a
> candidate has brought such a focus to disability in a
> primary contest. Through the fall, Wesley Clark, John
> Edwards, Dick Gephardt, John Kerry, Joe Lieberman, Dennis
> Kucinich and Carol Mosely Braun released significant
> disability statements. Links were posted during the
> primaries, and remain for those with active websites, at
> www.nod.org/election2004.html.
>
> Clark, Dean, Edwards, Gephardt, Kerry, and Kucinich
> responded to specific questions that the American
> Association of People with Disabilities posed to them last
> fall about including people with disabilities in their
> campaigns, making judicial nominations, Medicaid, and the
> Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Clark, Dean,
> Edwards, Kerry and Kucinich responded to ADAPT's survey
> about community-based long-term health care. Dean, Edwards,
> Gephardt and Kerry accepted former Congressman Tony
> Coelho's challenge to prioritize disability issues.
>
> Kerry, now the presumptive Democratic nominee, has released
> a comprehensive 22-page disability policy platform. His
> fellow Vietnam veteran, former Georgia Senator Max Cleland,
> has been a prominent member of the Kerry team. Cleland, who
> lost both legs and an arm in Vietnam and uses a wheelchair,
> has bolstered their candidate's connection to the
> community, as have a credentialed team of disability
> advisors.
>
> Many people with disabilities are going to vote Democrat or
> Republican based on a plethora of reasons that may have
> nothing to do with disability. Yet certain issues have a
> particular connection for a population group where only
> one-third are employed, many of those underemployed; where
> medical costs and insurance are frequent worries; where the
> availability of affordable transportation and housing are
> key to one's quality of life; and where the civil rights
> promised by the ADA for employment, community services, and
> access can have a daily impact. Voters who may not have
> disabilities but who have relatives and friends who do, or
> who work as caregivers and service providers, will also
> focus on these issues.
>
> The late disability advocate and "Father of the ADA,"
> Justin Dart, used to tell people, "Vote as if your life
> depends on it. Because it does." Many have responded to
> that call in the past, and a variety of advances will make
> it possible for more to in the future. The Help America
> Vote Act of 2002, advances in voting machine technology,
> and the enforcement of polling place compliance with the
> Americans with Disabilities Act are making the voting
> process ever more accessible. Americans with disabilities
> made the 2000 election a close one. If they had split their
> vote differently or gone to the polls in different numbers,
> history might have been changed. In 2004, with another
> close election likely, voters with disabilities will play
> an important role again.
>
> # # #
>
> =====================
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> JUSTICE FOR ALL -- A Service of the
> American Association of People with Disabilities
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>
> There's strength in numbers!  Be a part of a national
> coalition of people with disabilities and join AAPD today. 
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The National Disability Party Website is at:
http://www.disabilityparty.com/