Project Director's Report
Most Americans Have Had to Fight for the Right to Vote
People with disabilities are part of a long, distinguished history of those seeking full and equal rights to participation in the ballot. We are yet another group of people fighting for our right to vote and follow in the footsteps of worthy predecessors. In 1842, Thomas Dorr of Providence, Rhode Island, a Harvard graduate, state legislator and landowner, led the fight for all white males to vote, including the non-landowners and the poor who had previously been denied. In the process, Dorr went to prison for two years and then faded from public life. Finally, during the Civil War, voting became a reality for all men. Rhode Island continues to follow in Dorr's footsteps and is the first state to make all of its voting places mobility accessible. How did they do it? This issue of Access New England tells you.
We are all aware of the suffrage battle for both women and African-Americans. Persons such as Alice Paul, a quiet and determined Quaker with a Ph.D., endured imprisonment and placement in a psychiatric ward for her leadership in women's suffrage. Her efforts led to President Wilson's endorsement of the constitutional amendment ensuring women the right to vote in 1920.
Bob Moses, a black high school teacher from New York moved to Mississippi in 1961 and decided to register to vote. When he attempted to register, he received head wounds from a knife and was told the office was closed. This was the beginning of weekly arrests and beatings for Moses and members of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee - a committee of people registering voters. According to the law, Blacks in Mississippi had been allowed to vote since 1868 with the passage of the 14th Amendment of the Constitution. But it wasn't until 1965, when the Voting Rights Act of 1965 passed, that the federal government pledged to enforce equal access to the ballot.
Although people with disabilities are not experiencing what our predecessors went through, there exists the insidious reality of being shut out of the democratic process. This issue of Access New England focuses on access to voting for people with disabilities. You will read about federal laws that offer protection and inclusion in the election process starting with the 1984 Voting Accessibility for the Elderly and the Handicapped and ending with the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA). HAVA sets new and specific standards for voter registration, accessibility, voter lists, technology, and training for poll workers. The law authorized Congress to provide $3.86 billion to states and federal agencies for election reforms. Also, read about our State Affiliates' strides in removing the barriers to voting for people with disabilities and implementing the requirements of HAVA.
Historically, about one-third of people with disabilities vote in presidential elections. In 2000, 41% voted according to an N.O.D./Harris Poll. This comprised 16.4 million of a potential 40 million Americans with disabilities of voting age. In 2000, the election was close. In 2004, another close election is likely. Voters with disabilities may play an extremely important role. If people with disabilities voted at the same rate as people without disabilities did in the last presidential election (50%), wow, this may be a political group to be reckoned with!
