(Editor’s Note: Thanks to the National Organization on Disability for the information in this article. We encourage our readers to register to vote, and to find out if the “Motor Voter” Act is working for blind citizens in the states where you live.)
If Americans with disabilities voted at the same rate as people without disabilities, there would be at least 5 million additional votes cast November 7, 2000. A major reason for the failure of most Americans with disabilities to vote is they are not registered to vote.
In 1993, the National Voter Registration Act (Motor Voter) was signed into law. Section 7a of the NVRA requires all public and private agencies serving people with disabilities to offer voter registration to their clients at intake, re-certification and change of address.
If an agency’s services are not provided in agency offices, the person who provides itinerant services must also offer voter registration services. If an individual declines to register to vote, the agency must obtain the individual’s signature on a declination form and keep that form on file for 22 months.
Some agencies, but by no means all, that are covered under this law include: vocational rehabilitation; special education; commissions for the deaf and the blind; paratransit providers; independent living centers; disability-specific service providers such as ARCs, MS Society, Epilepsy Foundation, Muscular Dystrophy Associations, etc.
Many disability agencies are in violation of the NVRA. A 1998 National Organization on Disability/Harris poll reports that only 25 percent of people with disabilities have been asked by a service provider to register to vote.
Contact the service providers in your area and ask the questions on the questionnaire below:
National Voter Registration Act Implementation Questionnaire
1) Does your agency offer the opportunity to register to vote to your clients as part of intake?
2) Does your agency offer the opportunity to register to vote to your clients as they receive services from your agency?
3) Does your agency keep records of those clients who decline to register to vote?
4) Who in your agency is in charge of ensuring that your agency complies with the National Voter Registration Act?
Please return this information, along with your name, phone number, and address, and the address and contact information for the agency which you surveyed, to: Adina Topfer, National Organization on Disability, 910 16th St. NW, Washington, DC 20006, or via e-mail to cpp@nod.org.