it does.


#209 Thursday August 10, 2006 - TALE OF TWO, MAYBE THREE ELECTIONS:
Disability Vote in 2000, 2004, 2006?
"Vote as if your life depended on it, because it does."-Justin Dart, "Father
of the Americans with Disabilities Act"
Yesterday Gloria came home unexpectedly early from hula-ing. She takes a
hula class twice a week, and I was expecting her about an hour later-I heard
the garage door start to grind up which meant she was turning into the
driveway-- and the bed was unmade.
Making the bed being one of my chores, I rushed from the computer and
frantically flung, tucked, spread and pulled the sheets, single blanket and
decorative coverlet more or less into place-tossed the idiotic throw pillows
on (whoever invented those useless things anyway?) and had the bed semi
"made" by the time Gloria said "hello?" for the third time.
"Oh, hello, dear," I said virtuously, "I was just making the bed."
But what if it took me half an hour to accomplish the simple household
chore?
Worse, what if I could not physically manipulate my limbs to do this
lightest work?
What if I could not see the bed all?
These are close to the official definitions of disability.
The U.S. census bureau classified people as "disabled if they had difficulty
performing tasks such as seeing, hearing, bathing, or doing light housework,
or if they had conditions such as Alzheimer's disease or autism. They were
considered to have severe disabilities if they were unable to perform any of
those tasks."-Council for Disability Rights, Stephen Ohlemacher, June, 2006.
How many people are we talking about? The article continues.
"Nearly one in five Americans - about 51 million people - had physical or
mental disabilities in 2002, according to the Census Bureau."
Fifty-one million people. and, probably, most of them have families.
That is a whole bunch of folks.
How do they vote? Naturally, no one political party contains the vast number
of individuals, but if I had to sum up the disability voter in two words,
they would be-
Generally, Democrat.
Bill Clinton, for example, carried the disability vote 69% to 23% over
Senator Bob Dole., 52% to 29% over President George H.W. Bush in 1992.
For the next few paragraphs, I am indebted to the American Association of
People with Disabilities, in an article titled "New Poll Finds Kerry Leads
Among Voters with Disabilities", by Brewster Thackeray.
"In the 2000 election, the Harris Poll found that 56% of voters with
disabilities cast ballots for Al Gore and 38% for Bush. Three million more
people with disabilities voted for Gore than for Bush..."
But-2004.
How did the disability community actually vote in 2004? I can't find
statistics for that-if anybody has them, I would appreciate hearing about
it.
But we do have a Harris poll taken in August, 2004, not long before the
election.
It showed Bush beating Kerry by six points (52-46) overall because of one
issue: Iraq and terror.
When polled on that issue alone, the disability community voted Bush over
Kerry,
49-41%. But they did so in far smaller numbers than the rest of America,
which favored Bush over Kerry by 54-36% in that area.
So the first issue (then as now) was the war, and there, Bush won. Today-is
Iraq/terror a strong issue for the GOP? Polls show 60% now feel Iraq was a
mistake.
And the other issues?
Read the next paragraph (from the AAPD again) very carefully.
"The survey asked which candidate respondents felt would do a better job
handling the economy and jobs, important issues for people with
disabilities, who are twice as likely to live below the poverty line and
less than half as likely to be employed. People with disabilities responded
50% for Kerry and 39% for Bush, compared to 45% and 42% .among those without
disabilities."
In the year 2000, 41% of registered disabled people voted.
 In 2004, only 32%.
 And 2006?
As a stem cell activist, I wish bi-partisan efforts were enough.
But I must  reluctantly point out that the Democrats in office are
overwhelmingly on our side, and the Republican officeholders are pretty much
against us-especially Mr. Bush.
The party officially opposed to embryonic stem cell research controls the
White House, the Senate, and the Supreme Court.
Therefore, if we want the research to move forward, we need to get some
checks and balances in there, i.e. voting in some more Democrats.
If I could have the ear of the Democratic party for one brief moment, I
would say:
Make a massive Get Out The Vote (GOTV) effort, focusing on the disability
community.
For 501 c-3 folks, don't worry.  Remember: Get Out The Vote efforts is a
non-partisan positive value. GOTV is not a threat to anyone's tax-exempt
status.
Besides: is it not right and proper that those who are disabled should
receive help registering, regardless of which party they should choose?
Disabled folks should be helped to register on line, (maybe have volunteers
go house to house, help use the computer to register) and get set up to vote
by mail: absentee ballots are probably the way to go for most disabled men
and women.
And in the party platform, consider the needs of the disabled: not just the
obvious ones, like wheelchair access and stem cell research, vital as those
are-but life and death issues like jobs, for example-among the disabled, 44%
are unemployed. That is more people out of work than in the Great
Depression.
Back to the Council for Disability article, cited in the Associated Press,
Stephen Ohlemacher, 5/12/06
Poverty? "The median income-the point at which half make more and half make
less-was $12,800 for people with severe disabilities,$22,000 for those with
milder disabilities and $25,000 for those with no disabilities."
Health insurance? "19% of adults, ages 25-64 with severe disabilities, had
no health insurance. About 17% of those with milder disabilities had no
health insurance, while 16%  of adults with no disabilities were without
health insurance."
Surprisingly, where-in what geographical areas-would you guess the highest
proportion of disabled people live?
In the South.
Here is the U.S. Census Bureau talking:
"Disability was more prevalent among families in the South and in rural
areas.
"Disability prevalence was not evenly distributed across the four U.S.
regions. With a 30.8% disability prevalence rate, the South had the highest
concentration of families with members reporting disabilities." U.S. Census
Bureau.
Now I have a clear and obvious motivation, a conflict of interest, if you
will.
Stem cell research is my passion. Of course, I want every disabled person
and their family and friends to support stem cell research!
But that is only one of many reasons to register, and vote. Voting is an
American right and responsibility-- and it is the only way most of us can
influence the country we live in.
Whatever your reasons to vote, the elections are your chance at power.
Listen to the Mountain State (West Virginia) Centers for Independent Living
website:
"For the approximately 400,000 people with disabilities in West Virginia,
every election has the potential to impact access to Medicare, Medicaid,
employment opportunities, ADA enforcement, affordable housing, independent
living services, personal assistance services, and other disability related
issues.
"As the late Justin Dart said, "Vote as if your life depended on it, because
it does!"
By Don Reed  www.stemcellbattles.com

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