By David-Elijah Nahmod
In July, the National Association of Councils on Developmental Disabilities held a disability voter registration week. The goal was simple: get more people with disabilities registered to vote so that they can cast their ballots. A Facebook Live event was held on July 16 with Donna Meltzer, CEO of NACDD, and actress Emily Kranking, an NACDD consultant and disability advocate who lives with hemiplegic cerebral palsy and dysarthria, a speech condition.
The NACDD has also launched One Vote Now, a website made possible by a grant from Craigslist founder Craig Newmark through Craig Newmark Philanthropies. OVN touts itself as “your central hub to find information about how to vote in the 2020 election.”
Helping people with disabilities vote
NACDD and OVN recognize that structural barriers have often made it more difficult for the disability community to vote. OVN therefore gathers and shares information to make voting more accessible to those with disabilities. The site offers users the tools to register to vote. OVN shares how people with disabilities can either request an absentee ballot or how to vote in person. They also provide resources on how people can do their research on candidates and policies and provides tools that help people with intellectual and developmental disabilities take part in the elections process.
“Our democracy is strongest when every voice can be heard,” Meltzer said in a press release. “More work needs to be done to ensure that every voter can cast a ballot that is counted, and we are here to make sure that the needs of people with developmental disabilities are accounted for in the general election.”
On September 3, OVN participated in a “registered and ready virtual rally” with no less than former First Lady Michelle Obama. The rally was organized by When We All Vote, a non-profit, non-partisan organization that seeks to increase participation in every election. That organization was launched in 2018 by Mrs. Obama, Tom Hanks, Broadway star Lin-Manuel Miranda, Janelle Monae, Chris Paul and singers Faith Hill and Tim McGraw.
Meltzer’s career has focused primarily on advocacy for people with developmental disabilities. She began her profession by accident during the 1980s, when she landed an internship on Capitol Hill. She ended up working for Congressman Tony Coelho, who is commonly known as the father of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
“When he was in Congress, he was very engaged in disability issues,” Meltzer said of Coelho. “He himself has epilepsy. Following my time working for him I did work for the Epilepsy Foundation, that’s where I cut my teeth doing policy work. But it was really working for Tony and getting engaged in the disability world, and I just decided that this was my place, where I could really make a difference in our world.”
Are you registered to vote?
Meltzer noted that NACDD had been actively engaged in Disability Voter Registration for several years.
“We have been very actively engaged in promoting, making sure that people with disabilities are aware that it’s happening,” she said. “One of the things that we always let people know through our One Vote Now site and other publications of NACDD is that you can still register to vote up to anytime up until the final deadline set up by your Board of Elections. But it’s really just a week to think about ‘hey, am I registered, how do I register, what do I need to know’, and so we use our One Vote Now site to get out information about that. It’s important to register early, to make sure you have everything set because of the pandemic, because we know that voting is going to be a little more challenging this year, and there’s many more things that people need to know about the vote — how to get to the polls, what’s going to happen on Election Day, should I vote in person or by mail — we want to make sure that people have a lot of information about all of those things that they need to know, and the first step of course is registering to vote.”
Disability Voter Registration Week was a launching pad for the disability community to start planning for Election Day. The first thing for people to do is to make sure they’re registered to vote.
Make your Election Day plan now
“It’s a great time to take action, to register to vote,” Meltzler said. “Or at least begin your process of planning for Election Day. Maybe it’s easy to think ‘I am registered, I did that last year, so I’m good, so maybe I should start double checking and making a plan for Election Day.'”
Meltzer emphasized that planning was especially important this year as there are a number of things for disabled voters to consider. A voter must decide if they’re going to go and vote in person if that’s available to them where they live, or if they will need an absentee ballot, or do they live in an all-mail-in state.
“So we really used that voter registration week as sort of that now’s the time kind of method,” Meltzer said. “Start thinking about the elections now, start planning for Election Day now, and so it’s really like a marker in time.”
Transportation to the polls, accessibility at polling places and getting understandable information before Election Day are among the issues faced by people with disabilities.
“Come Election Day, when people are at the polling places, we have seen numerous things happen over the years, including barriers to getting in the door, to not enough trained poll workers to help somebody with physical disabilities navigate the space,” Meltzer said.
Meltzer has also seen instances in which people with intellectual disabilities have been told that they cannot vote unless they are accompanied by a guardian.
“That’s against the law,” she said. “So there are loads of challenges, so each year we strive to identify what challenges there are and try to address them in real time. In our modern world of having things like apps, if you are at a polling place and you are facing discrimination then and there, you can make a call, you can use the app to reach out to whoever the app is connected to that can help you solve the problem. We do partner with other organizations that collect data on that, where there has been discrimination or voter suppression. We try to cover the gamut; we try to think about and learn from our constituents what are all the potential challenges that people have and how are we going to solve them and provide solutions and alternatives.”
Visit One Vote Now
One Vote Now features a blog. Recent postings have included a commemoration of the 100th anniversary of women gaining the right to vote, as well as a piece on the Voting Rights Act and voting suppression in minority populations. Meltzer points out that people with disabilities have struggled for the right to vote as well.
“Ideally, what we’d like to see is all kinds of options,” she said. “So that those who choose to be at a polling place can do that, and those who choose to stay home where they feel physically safe from Covid, safe from whatever, and not having to deal with the challenges of transportation, standing in long lines, and not having enough poll workers there to manage a good and smooth process is a better choice. Choice is the name of the game here.”
Please visit One Vote Now for more information: https://www.onevotenow.org/
Photo credit: Wisconsin DD Council