U.S. Organizations Mount Voter Education and Turnout Campaigns

By Kay Schriner (kays@comp.uark.edu)
 

Voting is more important than ever, say many in the U.S. disability movement. With disability policy more controversial than in the past, people with disabilities can no longer count on the broad-based support of elected officials for the services and supports they need. Many informed observers now argue that the disability rights movement should focus its efforts on developing a powerful voice in the voting booth.

Several major U.S. disability organizations agree, and are mounting major efforts to educate and turn out voters with disabilities. The American Association of People with Disabilities, the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, the National Mental Health Association, and the National Organization on Disability have voting rights projects underway.

A brief summary of each organization's project is as follows (organizations are listed alphabetically):

American Association of People with Disabilities

AAPD's new President and CED, Andrew J. Imparato, says "As far as I'm concerned, there's no better way to further our mission than to promote voter registration, education and mobilization among the 35 million plus voting age people with disabilities". In a letter to AAPD members after his appointment, Imparato put registering and educating voters with disabilities among the top priorities of the organization (www.aapd-dc.org/news/index.html).

Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law

The Bazelon Center will "help determine what, if any legal strategies may be pursued" to protect the voting rights of people who are labeled mentally ill, and "initiate litigation in a few appropriate cases", according to its website at www.bazelon.org/voting.html. Also at the website is a flyer available in HTML version and PDF file that summarizes voting rights and the ADA.

Jennifer Mathis is heading up this effort. She can be reached at jennifer@bazelon.org
or at the Bazelon Center, 1101 15th St., N.W., Suite 1212, Washington, DC 20005.

National Alliance for the Mentally Ill

NAMI launched a national "I Vote, I Count" campaign in February, 2000. This is a "national non-partisan campaign" to register and educate people with severe mental illness and their families and friends. NAMI's goal is to build a "broad, aggressive movement for fundamental change in America's mental healthcare system" (www.nami.org/pressroom/000207.html).

National Mental Health Association

NMHA's National Mental Health Consumer Supporter Technical Assistance Center (NCSTAC) is sponsoring the National Mental Health Voter Empowerment Project (www.ncstac.org) to train local groups how to run voter registration, education and turnout campaigns. So far, training has been offered in California, Florida, and Atlanta. The project is based on the work of Ken Steele and the New York Mental Health Association. For more information, contact project staff at ConsumerTA@nmha.org.

National Organization on Disability

NOD is coordinating the VOTE! 2000 campaign, a "non-partisan effort to increase by 700,000 the number of voters with disabilities in the year 2000 elections" (www.nod.org). According to NOD's Jim Dickson, "If people with disabilities voted at the same rate as the non-disabled, 7 million more votes would have been cast in the last presidential election. We are the 'sleeping giant' of American politics" (www.nod.org/press.html).

The VOTE!2000 campaign will call on states to ensure that polling places are accessible and that blind voters are offered secret ballots. It will also advocate for national standards for accessibility at polling places.

These programs can be every effective. According to a front-page New York Times article, one New York City program run by Ken Steele, a consumer advocate, has registered 28,000 people, and 15,000 of those voted in the 1998 election. Steel's program is so effective that it is the model for the National Mental Health's Association national effort. For more information about his program, see Erica Goode's front-page New York Times article entitled "Gentle drive to make voters of those with mental illness", which appeared on October 13, 1999.