·People with disabilities
are on average about 20 percentage points less likely than those without disabilities
to vote, and 10 points less likely to be registered to vote (after adjusting
for differences in demographic characteristics)
·The voting gap between people with and without disabilities is especially
wide among those aged 65 or older
·Low turnout is most likely among individuals who have difficulty going
outside alone, and among those with severe visual and mental impairments
·People with disabilities are more likely than those without disabilities
to have encountered, or expect, difficulties in voting at a polling place. Of
those voting in the past ten years, 8% of people with disabilities encountered
such problems compared to less than 2% of people without disabilities. Among
those not voting within the last ten years, 27% of people with disabilities
would expect such problems compared to 4% of people without disabilities
·If people with disabilities voted at the same rate as those without
disabilities, there would have been 4.6 million additional voters in 1998, raising
the overall turnout rate by 2.5 percentage points
From D.L. Kruse, K. Schriner,
L. Schur, & T. Shields, University of Arkansas-Fayetteville, Empowerment
through Civic Participation: A Study of the Political Behavior of People with
Disabilities.