Voting Access Across the Country

Disability Rap

With the midterm elections five weeks away, we spend today’s show looking at voting access for people with disabilities across the country. People with disabilities make up one fifth of the US population, or roughly 66 million people, and yet only 17.7 million people with disabilities voted in this country in 2020. While that was a significant increase over 2016, we wanted to find out what some of the main barriers are that people with disabilities face when trying to exercise our right to vote. We’ll look right here in California and also look at Texas and Wisconsin, where recent laws and court orders have restricted access to the ballot box for voters with disabilities.

We're joined by a roundtable of guests from across the country.

• Lilian Aluri, REV UP Voting Campaign Coordinator at the American Association of People with Disabilities.
• Michelle Bishop at the National Disability Rights Network.
• Molly Broadway, Training and Technical Support Specialist, Disability Rights Texas.
• Barbara Beckert, Director of External Advocacy, Disability Rights Wisconsin.
• Bill Crowley, Supervising Attorney, Disability Rights Wisconsin.
• Gabe Taylor, Voting Rights Senior Advocate, Disability Rights California.