US Vote Blog

There’s a key question that voters with disabilities should address right now in advance of an election: What is the most convenient way to securely cast a ballot given one’s personal circumstance?

When weighing whether to vote in person, it’s crucial to consider that while the full and equal opportunity to vote is protected by federal law ... Two-thirds of polling places still lack an accessible path to the ballot box; and one-third of polling locations are currently unable to honor the right to a private and independent vote for voters with disabilities.

National Disability Voting Rights Week - Guest Blog - Issue 5.

It’s already challenging to increase voting in rural communities, but increasing the rural disability vote is even more difficult. While increasing voter turnout is challenging everywhere, issues specific to rural voting must be confronted to effectively implement a voting strategy in these less populated areas.

These strategies can be used in your rural community too...

National Disability Voting Rights Week - Guest Blog - Issue 4.

Knowing just what you want to say, but getting wrong words. Lots of wrong words or no words at all. THAT’S aphasia.

We all experience getting stuck for words once in a while. When it happens, our sentences may sound funny or be filled with hesitations. We may laugh, we may get frustrated. We may ask for help. We may Google the word. Sometimes we give up. This is what people with aphasia do, too.

For most of us, these momentary glitches are just that, glitches...

National Disability Voting Rights Week - Guest Blog - Issue 3.

The third guest blog post in U.S. Vote Foundation’s Disability Rights Voting Week series comes from Access the Vote Florida (ATVFL), which is the Florida chapter of the national REV UP Voting Campaign.

As Americans, one of our inherent rights is that of liberty. A key part of liberty consists of equitable access and the ability to impact society, and one of the most basic ways to exercise that is through our individual right to vote. For the estimated one in four Americans living with disabilities, in the United States, the ability to vote affords them the opportunity to exercise autonomy and to participate in democracy in the same way as any citizen.

National Disability Voting Rights Week - Guest Blog - Issue 2.

38 Million. That’s the number of eligible voters with disabilities in the U.S. Each year, there is a Disability Voting Rights Week. Learn why the disability vote matters and how you work to build the power of the disability vote with us.

Disabled voters make up one of the largest voting blocs in the country. Many politicians and lawmakers prefer to think of us as passive members of society, content to be left out of the political process. But this could not be farther from the truth.

National Disability Voting Rights Week - Guest Blog - Issue 1.

The first guest blog post in U.S. Vote Foundation’s Disability Rights Voting Week series comes from Elizabeth Pendo. Prof. Pendo is the Joseph J. Simeone Professor of Law at Saint Louis University School of Law and an expert in disability law, health care law and policy, and bioethics and the law. She served on the ABA Commission on Disability Rights.

Next week is National Disability Voting Rights Week, and at US Vote we’re doing everything we can to ensure voting is accessible for all – whether at the polling place, through a drop box, or by mail.

One in four American adults – over 60 million – lives with a disability. And one in six voters -38 million total - are impacted by a disability. Despite these significant figures, roughly two-thirds of polling places in the country still aren’t in full compliance...

A truly representative democracy requires all American citizens to express their voices through their ballots. While it can be exciting to cast a vote, anyone intent on making their preferences heard in the electoral process must fulfill a few steps and make a plan – to successfully vote in the 2024...

Unfounded concerns about the integrity of the 2020 election have spiraled into a crisis of confidence in our nation’s core election infrastructure. Over the past two years, this has taken the form of personal threats to election officials’ physical safety, a proliferation of unofficial audits, a concentration of state legislatures’ authority to usurp election results, and, most recently, an attempt to move to entirely hand counted elections.