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Voters with Disabilities Feel Ignored by Presidential Candidates

A new report from Rutgers University estimates that about 40.2 million eligible voters in the U.S. presidential election are disabled. As reported by the Associated Press, “Add those who cohabitate with people who have a disability, and you’re looking at close to one-third of the voting population for an election in which health care is among the key campaign issues.” The disabled voting bloc is growing as the U.S. population ages.

As reported, voters and advocates say the system is  not addressing “hurdles that make people feel excluded from the electoral process.” Some of the exclusionary issues are “inaccessible campaign materials to candidates inadequately mentioning “how issues like COVID-19 impact the disability community.”

Dom Kelly is identified as “the founder and CEO of New Disabled South, an advocacy group that focuses on disability rights in the South.” Kelly claims that presidential candidates “should be treating us like we’re their path to victory because we are, frankly.” Kelly warns candidates who do not take “disabled people” seriously. “That will reflect on the outcome of your campaign.”

Advocates argue the details of data on disabled voters are warning indicators. “Lisa Schur and her husband Doug Kruse lead the Program for Disabilities Research at Rutgers and co-wrote the new report.” The report alleges “there are 7.1 million disabled voters in the battleground states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.”

Schur said that disabled people are less likely to receive information about politics and can face numerous difficulties when voting in-person and by mail. All of it can lead to less participation. Schur is quoted as claiming the accumulation of these voting impediments are “kind of like death by a thousand cuts.”

Reporting has identified a disabled person, Meighan Stone, who uses a wheelchair due to symptoms of long term COVID. Stone alleges she would like to see “both candidates focus on solving how long it takes to get disability benefits — about 6-8 months, according to the federal government — and getting the Food and Drug Administration to approve a treatment for long COVID. Stone argued that she thinks “campaigns want to act as if they solved a pandemic and it’s over.”
D&B Staff

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