Group works to mobilize disabled vote
Tuesday, November 22, 2005
BY DIANA FISHLOCK
Of The Patriot-News

Kelly Anthony has heard the predictions: NASCAR dads are going to decide this election. Soccer moms will decide that election.

She wants to hear that people with disabilities are going to decide the 2008 presidential election.

Disabled people have voted in much lower rates than blacks, senior citizens and other minority groups with fewer members, said Anthony, senior field organizer for the American Association of People with Disabilities. 

Only 35 percent to 45 percent of those with disabilities vote, according to the association.

The newly formed Disability Voting Coalition of Pennsylvania hopes to change that. The coalition wants to harness the political potential of disabled people, but first they need to see themselves as people who can wield immense political power, advocates said.

The group held its first meeting yesterday at the Hilton Harrisburg and Towers.

They discussed fundraising, attracting members and which approaches would work best on state and regional levels.

The coalition's 12 steering committee members will decide the next step, said Joan Martin, steering committee member and executive director of United Cerebral Palsy of Pennsylvania.

Issues include: inaccessible polling places and machines, poll workers who don't understand the rights of disabled voters, intimidation of voters from group homes and misunderstanding by disabled voters themselves, according to the steering committee.

It will take time to get organized and motivate people to vote, then more time for policy makers to recognize the disability vote, according to Anthony.

Efforts to mobilize disabled voters are recent. Missouri was the first state to organize a disabled voting coalition in 2001, she said.

People with disabilities need to wield their political clout the way that labor unions, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the National Rifle Association and the AARP do, Anthony said.

Organizations that serve disabled people need to create a climate where people think about politics and aggressively encourage people to vote, speakers said. 

Too many service providers confuse being non-partisan with being non-political, said Paul O'Hanlon, co-chair of the coalition and an attorney with the Disabilities Law Project in Pittsburgh.

People with disabilities need to make the connection between voting and the issues that matter to them, such as accessible public transportation and Medicaid, Anthony said.

"It is up to us as organizations to make that connection," she said.

"The more times we make it, especially in an election year, the more likely somebody will vote."