Why Vote?

[John Cottingham <jcott@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

The source of this article is New Mobility: http://tinyurl.com/5tblw

October 2004 Issue


Why Vote?

By Douglas Lathrop

Following the November 2000 election, a survey by the Rutgers Center for Public 
Interest Polling found that people with disabilities were 12 percent less 
likely to have cast ballots than nondisabled voters. Had disabled Americans 
gone to the polls at the same rate as the rest of the electorate, there would 
have been an additional 3.2 million votes cast--nearly six times the number 
separating Al Gore and George W. Bush in the popular vote.

To put it bluntly: If more of us had voted, the past four years might have 
turned out quite differently. Or, they might not have--but at the very least, 
phrases like "hanging chad" and "butterfly ballot" might not be taking up 
valuable space in our brains today.

Within the disability community, discussions of poor voter turnout tend to 
center around barriers--inaccessible polling places, discrimination by 
pollworkers, etc.--as well as, recently, the virtues of paper ballots versus 
touch-screen voting machines. Just for a moment, though, let's ask a separate 
question: Why should we vote anyway?

Disability issues are not always easy to map onto the traditional 
liberal-to-conservative political spectrum. Although recent polls indicate that 
the disability vote tends to skew left, the disability community as a whole 
cuts across political lines. The same holds true among elected officials. After 
all, it was a Republican President, George H. W. Bush, who signed the ADA into 
law in 1990. In Congress, friends of the disability community--frequently those 
with disabled family members--range from liberal Democrats like Sens. Ted 
Kennedy of Massachusetts and Tom Harkin of Iowa (whose late brother was deaf) 
to conservative Republicans like Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah and Rep. Pete 
Sessions of Texas (whose son has a mental disability).

We know voting is our civic duty, of course--but as people with disabilities, 
what real difference does it make whether Bush or John Kerry is in the White 
House, or whether the Republicans or Democrats control Congress?

For close observers of disability issues, the answer is: It makes a lot of 
difference. Says Gwen Gillenwater of the National Council on Independent 
Living, "I don't think we've ever had an election that has been more important 
for people with disabilities. We need to be asking the candidates what their 
stances are, and becoming educated."

Following is a brief overview of a few areas where the 2004 election could 
directly affect people with disabilities.

Stem Cell Research
In 2001 the Bush administration, citing religious and ethical objections, 
sharply limited federal funding for research using stem cells derived from 
human embryos. For the next three years politicians and the media lost 
interest, until the death earlier this year of former President Ronald Reagan 
after a long battle with Alzheimer's disease pushed stem cells to the top of 
the campaign agenda. Reagan's son, Ron Jr., addressed the Democratic National 
Convention on the issue in August, and it is assumed that a Kerry 
administration would restore support for stem cell research to pre-2001 levels.

The Supreme Court
In recent years a series of Supreme Court rulings has severely limited the 
scope of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Other rulings have upheld the 
act's provisions, but by narrow 5-4 margins. Currently, the average age of the 
nine justices is 70, with two--John Paul Stevens and Chief Justice William 
Rehnquist--in their 80s. It is conceivable that, between now and the 2008 
election, the President will have the opportunity to appoint as many as three 
new Supreme Court justices. The future of the ADA, and of disability rights 
generally, will depend greatly on who those appointees are.

"Whether it's a Democrat or a Republican in the Oval Office, it should be 
reasonable for us to expect appointees who support the ADA," says Brewster 
Thackeray of the National Organization on Disability. "And of course, their 
emphasis on the ADA will reflect how they might be expected to support other 
issues for people with disabilities."

Bush's appointments to lower courts--especially those of Jeffrey Sutton and 
William Pryor--have drawn fire from many disability activists because of what 
they see as their anti-ADA stance. In addition, should Rehnquist retire as 
Chief Justice--as he is expected to do if Bush wins a second term--the current 
odds-on favorite to replace him is Justice Antonin Scalia, one of the most 
vociferous opponents of the ADA on the high court.

As a Democrat, Kerry would most likely prefer judges who support civil-rights 
laws such as the ADA--although presidential candidates tend to avoid promising 
single-issue litmus tests for judicial nominees. Regardless of which candidate 
wins the White House, Thackeray believes they need to be held equally 
accountable for the judges they appoint. Where disability rights are concerned, 
"we don't want a wolf in sheep's clothing."

Congress
Even in so-called "red" or "blue" states which seem safely in the hands of 
either Bush or Kerry, voters still have to select candidates in a large number 
of hotly contested congressional races. The results of these races can affect 
the overall makeup of Congress--and the future of legislation affecting the 
disability community.

At the top of the disability agenda is MiCASSA--the Medicaid Community-Based 
Attendant Services and Supports Act--a bill diverting Medicaid funds for 
long-term care from nursing homes to community-based attendant services. 
Introduced in the last three sessions of Congress, it has languished in 
committee, in large part because of lobbying from the nursing-home industry. 
Nevertheless, MiCASSA continues to enjoy support from members of both parties, 
and it is sure to be reintroduced next session.

Less friendly to the disability community is the so-called "ADA Notification 
Act," a bill (first introduced in 2000) that would require individuals to give 
90 days' advance notice before filing suit against businesses for lack of 
access. Although reintroduced this year, it has received lackluster support. 
"As more legislators have learned about how it would actually impact people 
with disabilities, it's wound up pretty much stalled," Thackeray says.

Obviously, we are not one-issue voters--and even if people with disabilities 
voted at the same rate as the rest of the electorate, we would not do so as a 
bloc. We share the same concerns and diversity of opinions as all other 
Americans--over the economy, the war in Iraq, how to protect ourselves against 
terrorist attacks, and social issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage. 
Even some of those issues we think of as "ours"--such as affordable access to 
health care--are of great concern to nondisabled Americans as well.

Still, the more we make ourselves heard at the polls, the more politicians will 
begin to see us as a constituency worth listening to. It                        
                     
maylooklikeonesometimes,butdemocracyisnotaspectatorsport--especiallynotforpeoplewithdisabilities.Ifyou'reblind,deaforinawheelchair,saidaWallStreetJournalop-edpieceinAugust,thestakesonNov.2areenormous.

Online Resources for Voters with Disabilities

The American Association for People with Disabilities Web site includes 
statements from the Bush and Kerry campaigns: www.aapd-dc.org.

The National Organization on Disability has a number of campaign-related 
articles and an extensive list of links concerning the presidential candidates: 
www.nod.org/election2004.html.

ADA Watch is an advocacy group that focuses on threats to the ADA, whether in 
the form of legislation, court cases or judicial appointments: www.adawatch.org.

Although not disability-specific, Project Vote Smart, a nonpartisan site, is an 
excellent resource for voters seeking information on the presidential 
candidates as well as House and Senate races: www.vote-smart.org

Democratic National Committee: www.democrats.org/disability.

Republican National Committee: www.gop.com/GOPAgenda.

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