We Count!

The Disability Voting Coalition announces the "We Count!" campaign, our campaign to increase voter registrations of people with disabilities.

Why It's Important

•  Approximately 2 million voting age Pennsylvanian's have disabilities — more than 20% of potential voters.

•  People with disabilities are less likely to be registered to vote when compared to our non-disabled peers.

•  Voters with disabilities could be one of the most powerful voting blocs in Pennsylvania!

•  Our power in the voting booth is diminished because so many of us are not registered to vote.

How to Improve Voter Registration Rates

Congress passed the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) in 1993 to make voter registration more accessible.  NVRA was designed to provide assistance to people with disabilities to register to vote.

With NVRA, Congress directed the following programs to offer voter registration to their consumers regularly:

• all county MH/MR funded programs
• all paratransit programs
• all Centers for Independent Living
• all Student Disability Services Offices
• all public school districts
• all Area Agencies on Aging

How We're Doing

In 2007, Pennsylvania registered 638,434 voters.  Since voting age Pennsylvanians with disabilities account for 20% of the population, you would predict that 127,686 registrations would be voters with disabilities.  In fact, only 379 registrations came from disability agencies!

Why Are Our Numbers So Bad?

Pennsylvania needs to do a better job of training agencies about the requirements of the NVRA.  Some agencies don't know that federal law requires they serve as voter registration sites, and/or may be unaware of the specific duties that Congress has imposed on these sites.  Also, some counties may not have been recording the information showing that registrations came from agencies that serve people with disabilities. 

What Can Disability Agencies in Your Community Do?

•  Ask them to take the "Count Us In Pledge."

•  Be sure your agency is using the new pre-coded voter registration forms so it will "get credit" for the registrations that it completes.

•  Ask them to schedule a training on NVRA obligations and compliance with the Pennsylvania Department of State's Bureau of Commissions, Elections and Legislation.

•  Ask your county Department of Elections if they have procedures in place to identify when registrations originate in disability service agencies.

 Join Us

This campaign is not a complaint — IT IS A CALL FOR ACTION!  Citizenship is an important part of being included in the community, and one ofthe primary rights of a citizen is to vote.  If ALL people with disabilities vote, we will have a significant role in choosing who gets elected.

We Count! But only if we change the perception that people with disabilities don't vote.