Let's Get Out The Vote!

Metropolitan Council on Developmental Disabilities has been working hard these past couple of months on two big legislative projects. The first project we have been a part of is the implementation of the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) Section 261 of the Missouri State Plan by conducting surveys of the polling places in our region. We have surveyed approximately 275 locations to help provide a snapshot of the accessibility status of the polling stations across the state of Missouri. This has been a big task, and we are pleased to have had seven local volunteers go through the training and put forth many hours in the Missouri heat to get all the surveys completed by the August 15th deadline. The second project we have been working diligently on is the list enhancement from the Get Out The Vote Project. We have been meeting with Kelly Anthony from Paraquad in St. Louis, as well as several local organizations who chose to participate. We will be working on a coordinated effort to get people with disabilities and their families and friends to register to vote before the November elections. We will also be contacting our interested persons by phone and mail reminding them to vote on November 2, 2004. Every vote counts, and one person can indeed make the difference in the outcome of the elections! If you are interested in volunteering with MCDD to get out a mailing or participate in a phone bank prior to the November election, please contact Lisa Chomor at 816-889-3422 or at mcdd1@kcnet.com.

Voting Equals Power
Kelly Anthony

It has been said before that 90 percent of the time, 90 percent of legislators decide 90 percent of their legislative priorities well before they are elected to office and begin making policy. Legislators, when they are candidates for office, will set their priorities based on who is seen as crucial to their success as a candidate and as a legislator. In other words, candidates listen to and more importantly, are held accountable to voters. Fact: People with disabilities are the largest minority community in this country, but we are the least mobilized voting block.

How is voting related to political power? Consider this: older adults make up 14 percent of society and vote at an 80 percent turnout rate in presidential elections, African-Americans make up 13 percent of society and vote at nearly a 70 percent turnout rate, and labor union voters only make up 9 percent of the population, but have been known to vote at a 90 percent rate. There is no denying the fact that these constituencies have established political power and that their issues are taken seriously at both local and national levels. People with disabilities on the other hand, make up 20 percent of society, yet we vote at a 35-45 percent turnout rate. There is also little argument to the fact that people with disabilities are the poorest, most unemployed, and the most vulnerable to state and federal budget cuts than any other community.

Electorally and legislatively speaking, power is recognized in two tangible ways: money and votes. Both of these things mean the difference between failure and success for a candidate or legislator. It is not realistic for us as a disability community, with two-thirds of our constituency living below the federal poverty level, to make our voices heard through financial prowess. However, what we as a community have, more than any other minority constituency in this country, is people-power and voting potential. So how do we get the disability community to establish its power through a recognized, mobilized voting block? The answer is in nonpartisan Get-Out-The-Vote (GOTV) tactics.

GOTV is a process that is used by all of the constituencies detailed above and others as a way to contact their membership to remind them to vote. This process has not been applied before on a large scale to the disability community, which explains to a large degree our lack of voting power. Not only is GOTV relatively easy, but it is highly effective.

In order to see issues of full and real inclusion of people with disabilities take priority in our legislatures, it is imperative that we work to mobilize and organize our voters. GOTV shows us that it can be done, and our current economic crises and legislative trends show us that it must be done. As the late Justin Dart teaches us, "Vote as if your life depends upon it; because it does".