September, 2004
At a recent conference in Washington DC for people with disabilities, a co-worker of mine acquired some significant information as to the difficulties people with disabilities have getting their voice heard in a democracy. One of the presenters from the Tennessee Disability Coalition spoke about voter turnout among people with disabilities. Did you know that the voter turnout rate for people with disabilities nationally is only 20%? Could this be why people with disabilities are the largest American minority group with no political power. Just think about it for a minute. When was the last time you heard a politician talking to the media about a disability issue? Does Governor Schwarzenegger get on TV and talk about the In Home Supportive Services Program? No, because politicians generally do not court voters using our issues. Why should they when we don't vote with at least the same percentage as the general public. Maybe if we did have a 50% turn out we would see a little more attention.
One of the presenters for the Tennessee Disability Coalition called disability advocacy "sophisticated begging " and said that politicians do not respond to common sense or logic, they respond to votes. That may seem harsh, but it got me started thinking about all of the proposed cuts in the State Budget that will negatively impact people with disabilities. Would these cuts even have been considered if our voter turnout rate was high and politicians knew it? I don't think so. If politicians respond to demonstrations of power and we do not make our power felt at the polls, it is no wonder that they don't respond to us.
If Americans with disabilities voted at the same rate as the rest of the population there would have been four million more votes cast in the 2000 Presidential Election. We have a Governor who has consistently told the Legislature that if they don't give him what he wants, he will bypass them completely and go straight to the voters. If we don't vote, how will he hear us? Voting allows us to be proactive, instead of reactive, running around putting out fire after fire.... I don't know about you, but I'm getting tired of running. I would rather stop, turn around and force politicians to listen to me.
How do we do that you ask? First we can conduct voter registration and do public education about voting. In Santa Cruz County this is very easy. Just call the Registrars office (454-2060) or visit them at the county administration building on Ocean St. to register. All you have to do fill out the form. They also have an outreach effort that can come to a group meeting (like a support group or group home) and do the forms. Additionally, I have the forms in my office and can also help people get registered.
We can also host candidate forums giving each candidate specific questions that pertain to the issues that the disability is concerned with. If that is inconvenient then show up as some of the scheduled candidate forums and ask them about how they stand on issues that may affect you or a family member with a disability. Questions like: What is their stand on creating low-income housing in their jurisdiction since many people with disabilities fall into the low income category? If they are a business owner ask about the accessibility of their business - Is it accessible according to Federal and state standards? If not, why not? What is their stand on funding local human service agencies? Why do these always seem to be the first on the block when it is budget time? How do they feel about the recent changes in para-transit for seniors and people with disabilities.
If our elected leaders began to believe that issues that affect people with disabilities (our children, siblings, parents and friends) were also important to all of us, then they might start paying a little more attention. We can't continue simply reacting when unfortunate things happen. We must teach politicians to feel the power of the disability vote!
Always remember - Disability is a random event that can occur in any life, at any moment.
- Michael Bradshaw, Central Coast Center for Independent Living