Republican state lawmakers have introduced an onslaught of bills limiting voting access, which do next to nothing to increase “election integrity” but make it harder for all Americans to vote.
These efforts are a particularly severe threat to communities for whom voting can already be difficult. In fact, preventing people from being able to vote from home is a direct attack on the civil rights of people with disabilities.
The expansion of mail-in voting in 2020 made it significantly easier for Americans with disabilities to engage in the electoral process. Turnout among these voters increased by six percentage points between 2016 and 2020, amounting to 1.7 million more voters. Last year, only 11% of voters with disabilities reported having trouble voting, a number that remains too high but is a significant improvement from the 26% who faced voting issues in 2012.
Since then, however, 17 states have enacted a combined 28 laws limiting voting access. A dozen states have specifically targeted mail-in ballots. Some laws reduce the time voters have to request or submit a mail-in ballot; others restrict the availability of drop-off locations. But all serve the same purpose: limiting access to the alternative voting methods that many voters with disabilities rely on. Nancy Crowther, a Texas voter who lives with a neuromuscular disease, put it plainly: “They're taking a lot of the dignity away from people with disabilities.”
It may seem incomprehensible that such legislation could be a deliberate attempt to marginalize the disabled community. Yet with more than 38 million people with disabilities eligible to vote, this is a formidable bloc with the power to influence election outcomes.
Activists have spent years fighting to build political power and secure basic freedoms for people with disabilities, but theirs is a history that is often overlooked. Last year's extraordinary “Crip Camp,” one of the first documentaries produced by Barack and Michelle Obama's Higher Ground Productions, tells the story of a group of young advocates who came together in the '70s to fight discrimination. It is a powerful reminder of what’s at stake today.
The fight for disability rights is far from over, and making voting more difficult for the community is only the latest threat. People with disabilities face a higher unemployment rate. Many are still fighting for the right to live independently. Medicaid offers home- and community-based services to keep people with disabilities in their homes instead of institutions and to provide vital assistance for daily tasks, but the program has limited funding and isn’t accessible to everyone who qualifies.
But there are signs of hope, especially in terms of voting. Fourteen states have passed laws to make it easier to vote by mail, offer more drop-off locations and even increase accessibility services for voters with disabilities. Some have introduced online voting for voters with disabilities, an option military and overseas voters have had for years. More states should follow suit, as should federal lawmakers. An important start could be passing the For the People Act in the Senate, which includes several provisions specifically protecting voters with disabilities. Legislators should listen to calls from disability rights activists to improve that bill by exempting voters with disabilities from paper ballot requirements.
After all, the biggest threat to our country's election integrity is not voter fraud – which is a fraudulent claim itself – but the silencing of Americans whose voices deserve to be heard. This fight reflects an ongoing Catch-22 that disabilities rights activist Judy Heumann wrote about in her memoir “Being Heumann.”
“Until institutions were forced to accommodate us, we would remain locked out and invisible – and as long as we were locked out and invisible, no one would see our true force and would dismiss us," Heumann wrote.
Protecting people with disabilities' right to vote is crucial to ensuring they will never be dismissed again.
Katrina vanden Heuvel is the editor and publisher of the Nation magazine. Her column comes from The Washington Post.
