Don’t Sit This One Out by Charlie Carr

Charlie Carr’s Blog from February 22, 2016

As people with disabilities we have an opportunity change the outcome of the upcoming presidential election. Regardless of your party affiliation or candidate of choice, the fact is that collectively, we have strength as a voting bloc. There are approximately 33.7 million Americans with disabilities of voting age and are about 20 percentage points less likely than those without disabilities to vote, and 10 points less likely to be registered to vote.

Quite a bit of this is due to inaccessibility in polling places. Of those voting in the past 10 years about 8% of people with disabilities encountered such problems compared to less than 2% of people without disabilities. But also, much like the general public, there is significant apathy and a disconnect with the political process and those running for office.

That said, we can’t sit this one out! At stake are issues like healthcare, education, climate change, the economy and employment, reproductive rights and on and on. Each of these issues resonates with our community and each is under attack.

Further, perhaps most important, is that the next president will most likely make key appointments to the Supreme Court. Three of the court’s nine justices will be in their 80s and one or two have hinted that they plan to step down soon. The Democrats have the most to lose because if a Republican assumes office, they will have a much easier time moving nominations through the Senate which is controlled by Republicans. President Obama, on the other hand, will face a bruising brawl with whomever he nominates to replace Justice Scalia.

Future justices could potentially face cases on everything from campaign-finance, affirmative-action, abortion and voting rights. In an age of Intersectionality, especially from youth with disabilities, these are our issues too. Issues of social justice that affect everyone.

The upcoming presidential election in November may result in one of the most important presidencies in recent history. Throughout the country there is a growing number of organizations that are aggressively involved in voting registration for people with disabilities such as Texas ADAPT and Massachusetts REV UP because of the importance of our vote and our collective power as a voting bloc to make sure that our issues get addressed.

If you are not registered to vote, register immediately and all of us owe it to ourselves and all those who came before us in the struggle for disability rights to exercise our power. It has come at a tremendous cost.