Vote Together is a crowdsourcing effort to bring neighbors together to plan local celebrations at polling places. ” From backyard BBQs to block parties and parades, families, friends, and neighbors are making voting a time of togetherness and fun.”
REV UP MA voters can participate by signing up on their website. http://votetogetherusa.org/ . Make a plan to vote, go to vote together, and then celebrate being awesome citizens!
by Greg Cameron, Nonprofit Vote (JohnsonCenter.org/nonprofit-voters)
“Additionally, post-program surveys show us the roots of civic engagement success at these nonprofits. Things like staff buy-in, partnerships, and engaging multiple venues and audiences were crucial elements to successful civic engagement activities. By learning from the success of these nonprofits, nonprofits new to the space can get a jump start on their own program roll-outs.”
Nonprofit Vote – Engaging New Voters (pdf)
Stanford University Business School, using behavioral science research, has compiled some interesting results. “Researchers applying psychology to the realm of politics are finding that giving voters a few strategic nudges can push far more people in the direction of polls on election day.”
Read Research-Backed Ways to Get Out the Vote (published April 17, 2012) at gsb.stanford.edu.
Updated May 21
The conference was very well attended with people from a wide variety of organizations. We will be sending out materials from the conference to help everyone be more active going forward.
The federal and state election officials left us all with the feeling that they all are trying very hard to ensure that all polling locations are accessible to everyone. In spite of their efforts, we are not at 100%, but they were knowledgeable on the issues, and seemed intent on continuing to fix barriers.
Going forward, we have two important and related goals – to register people with disabilities to vote, and to Get Out The Vote in November. We also need to continue to be vigilant and ensure all events and venues are accessible to everyone. Our emails will provide opportunities to become active as we determine how to best achieve these goals.
Thank you very much to the panel members who made the effort to attend, to update us on current efforts, and to listen to our concerns.
Speakers:
Cheryl Cumings, Founder/Executive Director of Our Space Our Place, Inc. will discuss access issues. Soon after entering high school, Cheryl contracted encephalitis and became blind. She completed her BA at Princeton University and a graduate degree at The fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. She worked at the Pentagon, Peace Corps, Massachusetts Commission for the blind and the University of Massachusetts medical school.Cheryl is a member of the Boston Chapter of the Bay State council of the blind and a Board Member of the Disability Policy consortium. She is also the Chair of the Disability Outreach Committee of the State Committee of the Massachusetts Democratic Party. Cheryl was an elector for the 2016 Electoral College.
Anne Fracht and Juliana Huerena, Vote Team with See Advocates Becoming Empowered (SABE) – they will be presenting and discussing the results of their 2016 Voter Election Survey Report and the services that they offer to election officials and people with disabilities to make voting accessible for all citizens. Here is a link to their pdf report: http://www.sabeusa.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/2016-Voter-Survey-Final-Report-28229.pdf
In 2005 she founded Our Space Our Place, Inc.(OSOP) OSOP is a nonprofit which provides an after school and career exploration program for blind or low vision youth.
Friday, May 18, 2018, 10:00 am to 3:00 pm
Best Western Royal Plaza Hotel & Trade Center
Marlborough, Massachusetts
2018, even without a presidential election, is an extremely important year for people with disabilities. Many if not all supports, services and civil rights have been under attack. While we have been largely protected in MA, voting has never been more important. Multiple studies have shown that people with disabilities are under-represented, and could make a difference in many contests if they showed up at the polls.
The goal for the conference is to identify barriers to voting, address the need to get out the vote for the upcoming midterms, and then identify a game plan on how we can all work together to improve voter accessibility – both through voter registration and elimination of voting barriers (issues with physical accessibility, ballots, equipment, communicating with election officials, right to vote (guardianship concerns), and other difficulties). After lunch we plan a frank discussion about obstacles faced by people with disabilities leading up to and on election day. We will have self-advocates address the participants and we will then work in small groups to identify a collaborative action plan that can be implemented by the attendees and others to address identified barriers.
Published in the Eagle Tribune May 4, 2018 by Keith Eddings
We have not solved ADA access to the polls!
www.eagletribune.com
From RespectAbility.org
Washington, D.C., Feb. 13, 2018 – A new national phone poll of registered voters shows the size, scope, and varied nature of the disability community in the United States. Fully 63 percent of American voters are in the extended disability community — people with disabilities, a family member with a disability, a close friend with a disability, work on behalf of people with disabilities, or volunteer for disability causes.
Click Here to read the entire poll – lots of important data! 2018 will be an important year for disability issues.
From NonProfitVote.org
Thursday, March 8, 2018 – 2 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. EST
If you’re new to voter engagement work, you may have questions about what your organization is permitted to do as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. The answer is a lot, as long as you do it on a nonpartisan basis. In this webinar, participants will discuss how to ensure that your nonprofit remains nonpartisan while engaging clients, consumers, staff, and constituents around voting and elections. The webinar includes explanations of IRS rules, do’s and don’t’s for nonprofits, and more.
If you can’t “attend” the webinar, it will be available online afterwards. Browse the website for other valuable webinars.
ADAPT Activists were recently in Washington, trying to prevent passage of House Bill 620 which significantly weakens the ADA. The bill has not yet been taken up by the Senate. The legislation passed 225-192 in the House.
“The idea that places of public accommodation should receive a free pass for six months before correctly implementing a law that has been a part of our legal framework for nearly three decades creates an obvious disincentive for ADA compliance,” Rep. Jim Langevin (D-R.I.), the first quadriplegic to serve in Congress, said during House floor debate.
Read The Hill coverage of this bill.
Great article on some of the amazing advocacy and actions this year by women with disabilities, including local Rev Up activist Colleen Flanagan. If we could get more people voting for the candidates who support health care and disability rights… maybe we wouldn’t need such intense activism…
Read the article at broadly.vice.com.
by Ted Jackson
“There are 59 million Americans with disabilities and nearly 36 million of them are eligible to vote. Along with their families and care providers, this voting bloc makes up one quarter of all voters and touches one half of all voting households. Disability voter activism has been growing and it’s finally getting noticed.”
Read the whole article at www.CampaignsAndElections.com