|
|
| |
Home
| Voting: A Right We Shareby Deborah Lisi-Baker Everyone can tell that it is election season. The campaign posters are all over people’s lawns and surround our roads like seasonal decorations posted above the fall grasses. Political ads are on the radio, in newspapers, and on TV. Commentary and debates by and about candidates are all around us. Sometimes the similarities between election time and hunting season are a little too close for comfort. These days we get to choose how we vote as well as who gets our vote. Many Vermonters go to their local polling place, some have already voted by absentee ballot, and this year individuals with disabilities who cannot use the traditional ballot have the option of filling out the ballot by phone at the polling place. Whatever candidates or political party each of us favors, whatever issues we are most concerned about, each of us has the power to speak up by exercising one of our most fundamental rights, the right to vote. These rights and opportunities are things some of us forget or take for granted; but it is something that individuals in other countries still risk their lives for. I remember a photo I saw last year: a robed woman in a war zone walking toward the polls while soldiers stood watch. Her children were at home with other family members because of the threat of violence, but she was walking toward the makeshift polls to cast her first vote. Voting is not something all Americans take for granted. When I was growing up very few polling places were accessible and the idea of making the ballot and the voting process accessible to people with disabilities or to individuals in nursing homes or institutions was not something that most Americans even thought about. As I grew up and began to vote, I saw the power inaccessible design and communication systems has to exclude people from the places and acts of citizenship. Working in a disability rights organization, I hear people talk about how old assumptions regarding disability shape their own expectations: Many individuals still think they are not allowed to vote because they have a disability or live in a group home or nursing home. It is not true. Today, federal laws protect the rights of registered voters with disabilities to mark their ballot and help states pay for new voting systems that offer more accessible ways to vote. Opportunities and activities like absentee ballots, voting by phone at the polls, and the civic efforts of individuals and organizations that are volunteering to help people get to the polls – without asking who you are going to vote for – are all changes that are helping individuals with disabilities and other Vermonters take our place in this democracy. Voting is just the beginning, of course. Even if you are not voting this year (though I hope you are) you can educate candidates and elected officials on the issues affecting seniors and individuals with disabilities and other concern you live with. A phrase from another civil rights movement keeps ringing in my mind: “Speak Truth to Power”. So often, the truths of so many people’s lives (as individuals with disabilities, low income or working class families, seniors, and family members) are not heard and are hardly noticed by politicians and the press. It is hard to speak up; but democracy is either found in the ordinary realities of our shared lives or it is not found at all. Keep marching; keep voting; keep sharing your concerns with the people in power. And if you or someone you know experiences complications or discrimination at the polling place, contact Vermont Protection & Advocacy at 1-800-834-7890. Deborah Lisi-Baker is the Executive Director of the Vermont Center for Independent Living. |