Callie Crossley, of WGBH (Boston public radio), talks about Early Voting in Vote of Confidence?  Early Voting Comes to Mass. 

The Boston Globe published an article on early voting readiness.  Sounds like the state is waiting until after the September Primary (which will not include Early Voting) to ramp up implementation.

Florida

Access the Vote – Disability Rights Florida

Texas

Austin Chronicle – REV Up the Vote

Maine

Disability Rights Maine – Voting Access

California

Disability Rights California – Voters with Disabilities

North Carolina

The North Carolina Council on Developmental Disabilities Promotes REV UP Campaign – Making the DISABILITY VOTE Count

New York

New York Association of Psychiatric Rehabilitation Services, Inc. – User REV Up to Expand Voter Registration

Virginia

Governor Terry McAuliffe – Disability Voter Registration Week 2016

Washington

Proclamation REV Up – Make the Disability Vote Count

Arizona

Arizona Capitol Times – People with disabilities must exercise their right to vote

Read this blog by Andrew Imparato – ED of Association of University Centers on Disability.  Continuing support for the ADA is one reason that people with disabilities have to vote.  We need legislators and government to continue to support the ADA as it was intended!

The ADA and Claiming Disability by Andrew Imparato

Retired Senators Bob Dole and Tom Harkness support National Disability Voter Registration Week.   Download the pdf letter, or scroll below for more insights into the importance of the disability vote.

“We are pleased to see the disability community become more involved in electoral politics. Our years of experience in congress taught us that bipartisan coordinated, grassroots, political organizing at local, state and national levels is critical to developing strong disability policy.

The disability vote can be a powerful mechanism to encourage candidates to take positions on disability issues that will promote the community integration vision in the Americans with Disabilities Act that will fulfill the four goals of the ADA: full participation, equal opportunity, independent living, and economic self-sufficiency.

We support your strategy to register people with disabilities and their supporters, educate the disability community on the issues and, most importantly, get out the disability vote (GOTDV).

We support National Disability Voter Registration Week, July 11 – 15 as a milestone in your campaign to be influential in electoral politics.

Senator Tom Harkin (Retired) Senator Bob Dole (Retired)“

From the Huffington Post – 6/30/2016 -THE BLOG

National Disability Voter Registration Week Is Coming. Here’s Why It Matters
by Sarah Blahovec
“On June 27, Buzzfeed released a video starring President Obama on the importance and ease of voter registration. The comedic video, “5 Things That Are Harder Than Registering to Vote,” features the President doing things like untangling earbuds and listing the characters who have been killed on Game of Thrones, tasks that are seemingly harder to do than registering to vote.

While the video is a very amusing PSA, there’s just one problem: for many of the millions of Americans with disabilities of voting age, registering to vote really isn’t that easy…”
Click here to read the whole article – it’s worthwhile! Thanks to Charlie Carr for the link.

July 11 – 15.

Visit the American Association of People with Disabilities  website for more information, and for a webinar on Organizing for National Disability Voter Registration Week.

Download the National Disability Voter Registration Week flyer.

Here are some of the ideas listed on the AAPD website:

• Hold a press event or conference with local partners to announce national and local efforts to get new people with disabilities registered to vote, educated on disability issues, and committed to get out the DISABILITY VOTE. If possible, coordinate multiple sites around your state to host press events at the same time.
• Organize a rally of voters with disabilities and disability advocates to promote the REV UP message and the power of the DISABILITY VOTE.
• Write letters to the editor or Op-Eds and engage local radio or TV stations on the growing efforts by the disability community to become an influential voice in electoral politics this November and beyond.
• Utilize your mail, email, and social media networks to provide information on voter registration and relevant disability issues in your area while also encouraging people to commit to vote on Election Day.
• Host a workshop or training on state voter registration rules as well as your rights as a person with a disability.
• Collect Data on voters with disabilities in your area – this will help us build a broader movement to show the power of the disability voting bloc.
• Include REV UP and voter registration tables at upcoming events (especially any events around the 26th anniversary of the ADA).
• Connect with other disability rights and voting rights organizations in your area.
• Make your organization a polling place (Resources: How To Serve As A Polling Site and ADA Polling Place Checklist).
• Go to your City Council, County Commissioner, State Representative, etc. to get the week of 7/11 – 7/15 declared DISABILITY VOTER REGISTRATION WEEK (a draft Resolution is available here).

AAPD REV Up – The national efforts!

Maine Accessible voting machines

Huffington Post – Video on the Disability Vote

The disabled face significant obstacles to voting in America’s political system, Stanford expert finds by Rick Schmitt – From the Stanford News

“People with disabilities are the ticking time bomb of the electorate.”

So says Stanford law researcher Rabia Belt, who has new research on the disenfranchisement of disabled Americans. The intersection of disability and citizenship – in history and in the here-and-now – is, in Belt’s view, part of a great unseen in law and democracy…”

https://news.stanford.edu/2016/05/23/disabled-face-significant-obstacles-voting-americas-political-system-stanford-expert-finds/