On October 14th, The Arc’s Voter Support Service went live. They are currently finalizing an app that can be downloaded, but in the meantime The Arc encourages voters to save the site to the home screen of their smart phones for easy access. It not only provides voters with a quick and simple way to report any issues faced at polling places on Election Day, but also aims to provide immediate assistance to ensure that their vote is counted. To learn more about this important new service, visit vote.thearc.org.

Earlier this year, AAPD and NCIL delivered a questionnaire regarding disability issues to the presidential candidates. As of this week, both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump’s campaigns have submitted answers.

• Clinton campaign answers
• Trump campaign answers

With the election only three weeks away, CILs should be preparing to make calls to consumers reminding them to vote and making sure they have a way to get to the polls. The Voting Rights Subcommittee has provided the NCIL 2016 Phone Banking Guide that includes tips regarding effective messaging, scheduling calls, and logging them as they are made. The Phone Banking Guide is available in PDF, Word, or plain text.

Visit www.ncil.org/votingrights for more resources from the NCIL Voting Rights Subcommittee!

We are pleased to share with you Mr. Trump’s response to the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD), the National Council on Independent Living (NCIL), and the REV UP Campaign 2016 Presidential Candidate Questionnaire. We greatly appreciate Mr. Trump submitting his response.

The questionnaire was sent to all of the current presidential candidates on 20+ state ballots. To date, Mr. Trump is the second candidate to respond to the questionnaire, following Secretary Clinton.

• Read Mr. Trump’s Responses to the Questionnaire
• Read Secretary Clinton’s Responses to the Questionnaire

With only 21 days until Election Day and early voting already taking place in many states, we need your help getting out the word about these questionnaire responses to educate the disability community, and the rest of the country, on how Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump would address issues that are important to people with disabilities.

People with disabilities and their families account for 62.4 million voters this election, approximately one fourth of the electorate. Please take a few minutes to reach out to your friends, family, and colleagues to share the REV UP Presidential Questionnaire responses from Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.  [Read more…]

We are pleased to share with you Secretary Clinton’s response to the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD), the National Council on Independent Living (NCIL), and the REV UP Campaign 2016 Presidential Candidate Questionnaire. We greatly appreciate Secretary Clinton’s response.

The questionnaire was sent to all of the current presidential candidates on 20+ state ballots. To date, Secretary Clinton is the only candidate to respond.

• Read Secretary Clinton’s Responses to the Questionnaire

We need your help getting all of the campaigns to respond and complete the questionnaire – take action to help us make this happen!

• Tweet Secretary Clinton to thank her for completing the survey: @HillaryClinton thank you for completing the #REVUP Presidential Candidate Questionnaire on #disability issues! https://goo.gl/C8jbUi
• Sign-on to a letter encouraging all of the candidates to complete the questionnaire
• Tweet the other candidates to encourage them to complete the questionnaire.

[Read more…]

The REV UP Campaign will be hosting another National Organizing Call on Tuesday, October 4th at 4:00 p.m. ET. This call will focus on how to engage in Get-Out-The-Vote (GOTV) activities leading up to Election Day on November 8th.

Most states will reach their voter registration deadlines at some point during the month of October. As such, it is time to shift our focus from voter registration to Get-Out-The-Vote (GOTV) activities as we get closer to Election Day on November 8th.

• Tuesday, October 4; 4:00 p.m. Eastern
• Register online
• Remote CART is available for this call.

[Read more…]

Yesterday, the Pew Research Center released a report entitled A Political Profile of Disabled Americans. Based on an analysis of their American Trends panel, the report details how Americans with disabilities compare to Americans without disabilities on interest and engagement in the election, voter registration and turnout, and ideological leanings. We are asking you to please share this report widely, especially with your local press, so that it can potentially generate greater media coverage of voters with disabilities.

This report is significant in that it provides new and substantive data on Americans with disabilities and their engagement in the political process. Not only does the report capture the demographic enormity of Americans with disabilities and detail the challenges they face at the polls, but it also shows that in many ways, the disability voting bloc is similar to voters without disabilities. The analysis of how many Americans with disabilities show up to the polls, as well as the finding that disabled Americans are ideologically mixed and do not overwhelmingly identify with any political party, means that the disability vote carries significant power and should be courted by all candidates and parties seeking election or reelection.

It is important that we spread the word of this report particularly on a local level, as this will increase interest from local communities and the press in understanding and profiling voters with disabilities. We ask that you reach out to your local press with the report and ask them to provide press coverage of voters with disabilities in your community. When discussing issues of importance to your CIL with the press, please also mention that CILs and voters with disabilities want to see Congress pass the Voting Rights Amendment Act. We hope that drawing the attention of the press on many levels will convince the Pew Research Center to continue to collect and publish data on Americans with disabilities in the future.

• See also: Voter turnout by state in 2012
• NCIL Voting Rights Subcommittee Web Page

If you have any questions, please contact Sarah Blahovec, NCIL Disability Vote Organizer, at [email protected] or Jim Dickson, Co-Chair of the NCIL Voting Rights Subcommittee, at [email protected].