New Statewide Survey Shows Lack of Transportation and Uncertainty about Eligibility Keep Voters with Disabilities from the Polls

Telephone survey provides insight into barriers to voting and key issues among Wisconsin’s Disability Community

A new statewide survey by the non-partisan Wisconsin Disability Vote Coalition (WDVC) takes a look at voting and the disability community. The poll of 600 respondents was conducted October 2 – October 9, 2008 and reached a cross section of the disability community including parents, guardians, people with disabilities, direct support workers and advocates.

The poll is among the first to reach into the disability community for answers about barriers to voting, key issues and voting patterns. A detailed memo on the polls’ key findings will be available at www.disabilityvote.org.

“The WDVC has built a statewide database of about 15,000 individuals in the disability community,” said Melissa Mulliken, coordinator of the WDVC. “We conducted a phone survey of a random sample of 600 of those individuals in order to learn more about what the disability community thinks about voting issues. In addition, by delving into the data, we can also learn how views and experiences vary among the various segments of the disability community.”

Mulliken pointed to one such difference. “People with disabilities are three times more likely than others in the disability community to cite a lack of transportation (16% as compared to 5.5%) and uncertainty about eligibility (9% as compared to 3%) as reasons they have not voted in the past,” she said. “So while both of those issues are of concern to the disability community as a whole, we now have empirical evidence that they are barriers which people with disabilities experience more keenly.”

Some of the poll’s other major findings are:

• Among the disability community as a whole, a perceived lack of knowledge about where candidates stand on issues (12% of all respondents) and about current issues in general (7% of all respondents) rank as the top two reasons respondents have stayed away from the polls on election day. People with disabilities are more apt to feel less knowledgeable about issues (12%) than others in the disability community.
• People with disabilities are about 7% less likely than others in the disability community to vote in November.
• The vast majority of the disability community reports they are “definitely” going to vote in November 2008 (91%) although people with a disability are 7% less likely to say they will definitely vote (84%).

When it comes to disability-related issues, the Disability Community evaluates candidates based on four key issues: making public places accessible; creating jobs for people with disabilities; improving the availability of health care and support for community-based programs.

Respondents were provided a list of issues important to the disability community and asked: “when you choose a candidate to vote for, how important to you is his/her position on the following disability-related issues?” There was essentially no statistical difference in the importance the disability community attaches to four issues: making public places accessible (96%); more jobs for people with disabilities (95%); making health care available for everyone (93%); and making sure there is enough money for community-based programs (93%).

Other issues tested were expanding Family Care statewide (88%) ending waiting lists for services (86%) and getting more transportation (84%).

In addition to workshops, outreach and education on voting rights and issues, the non-partisan WDVC has conducted a get-out-the-vote mail and phone program to a targeted portion of its database during five election cycles (November 2004; November 2006; April 2007; April 2008; and September 2008). In the four cycles for which the WDVC has results, the program has resulted in increasing turnout among that targeted group of the disability community in Wisconsin by an average of 19%. The WDVC conducted this poll in preparation for its work in the November 2008 election.