By RoboDad

It’s estimated that less than half of eligible voters will bother to vote in this non-presidential election year. They will decide who controls both houses of Congress, whether local taxes are raised, and the fate of many controversial issues that will be put before the voters in the form of initiatives and referendums.

Maybe you're okay with letting so few people determine our destinies for us, but I'm not. It is not clear to me that that small percentage of eligible voters actually have my interests in mind. When I look around my neighborhood, I doubt that any of them share all of my interests and concerns. I think it's time to show that the power of voters with disabilities can actually be “the tail that wags the dog.”

More than 30 million citizens with disabilities are eligible to vote, as we are 18 years of age or older. Since we all have different opinions and political persuasions, we don't vote the same way on every issue. However, we can make a difference. Many elections have ended with vote counts of less than a thousand determining the winner.

Withholding the right to vote has been a tool used to suppress the political power, or even social standing, of subgroups of our society since our country was formed. Originally only white landholders, Christian males, were allowed to vote. Not being allowed to vote initially disenfranchised several subgroups, but eventually people of any religion, people of color, women and citizens as young as 18 were all granted voting rights.

Many people with disabilities are still being disenfranchised when barriers to voting impede our access to the polls. In the 2000 elections, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that about 16% of polling places had absolutely no impediments to the ability of people with disabilities to vote. In the 2008 elections there was some improvement, yet only about 28% of the 750 election sites surveyed had no barriers to voting. To put it another way, about 72% of voting places still had some barriers present less than two years ago!

In that same election, only half of the people with disabilities of voting age bothered to vote, even though it was a presidential election year. That’s not a very impressive turnout for what could potentially be one of the country’s largest voting blocs.

The Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA) required states to make voting accessible, and has since resulted in the distribution of millions of dollars to make that a reality. Many states used the funding to purchase “accessible” voting machines for each polling place. In 2004, the Department of Justice distributed an ADA Checklist for Polling Places, yet significant barriers still exist. Why?

Perhaps it’s the lack of political will to open voting to all of us, as demonstrated by the large percentage of inaccessible polling sites. Amazingly, some states have even failed to upgrade their state laws to match the HAVA, for fear that there might be additional costs or lawsuits involved if they fail at accessibility. That's the case in New York, where the governor recently vetoed a bill that would have created a right to accessible voting.

Absentee voting isn't a great solution either. I have been an absentee voter for years, since my jobs often forced me to be away from my hometown on election days. That meant that my vote was often mailed before last-minute surprises that seem to be revealed at the ends of many close election races. It also meant that my neighbors, poll workers, and perhaps even those I vote for (or against) might not even consider me to be an actual voter since they didn't see my face at the polls.

This problem has a fairly simple solution. If large numbers of people with disabilities show up at polling places on election day, it will highlight the need for unimpeded access to accessible voting equipment. There will undoubtedly be many more months or years of complaints and even lawsuits needed, but progress will be made.

Look what happened with the ADA; 21 years ago there were very few people with disabilities visible in local malls and other businesses, or riding public transit buses and trains. Today we are everywhere, and people expect to see us out and about. I believe that the same can happen with voting if enough of us exercise our right of citizenship by registering to vote and showing up in person on election day.

© 2010 Michael Collins