Voter Rights
Why Non-Profit Disability Services Agencies Must Register Their Customers To Vote
Cuts to services for adults with disabilities and to families that have children with disabilities are making news daily. Legislative proposals to block grant and consequently re-structure services are pending enactment at federal and state levels. So customers of such services should have the fullest opportunity to participate in the political process. Many such persons, unfortunately, are not registered to vote.
Approximately 23.5 million people with disabilities, who were eligible to vote, did not vote in the 1996 presidential election; about 9.2 million were not even registered to vote. The fate of human services delivery agencies could well be decided at the polls in the next round of local, state and federal elections!
The National Voter Registration Act, often referred to as NVRA or "Motor Voter", requires states to remedy this problem by permitting registering of voters at state-funded offices that provide services to people on Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), food stamps, Medicaid, WIC, drivers' licensing or disability services. The NVRA specifically permits private sector voter registration such as by UCPA affiliates, or other nonprofit groups.
Disability services agencies can accomplish voter registration as a service they offer in conjunction with other service provision as a nonpartisan public service. This can be accomplished at reception desks, during intake processes, or other special events and it can be conducted as part of the routine business of the agency or organization.
Studies indicate that seventy percent of people who are registered to vote by volunteer canvassers in human services offices actually go to the polls in presidential elections. And their votes will determine election outcomes.
If disability services organizations ensured voter registration of every adult with a disability that they serve and their family members, the U.S. Congress might think twice before it passed legislation slashing disability services programs further. Registering voters is a public service activity that will facilitate advancing the independence of people with disabilities and will sustain one of the world's most diverse democracy.