Welcome back to The Political Spectrum! I know you are all expecting a big write-up of the midterms and don’t worry, that’s coming. Also, the Midterm Mailbag edition for Thursday still stands. So paid subscribers, send questions and people who want to send questions, become a paid subscriber! But one goal of The Political Spectrum is to highlight stories about disability that have not received as much coverage in national news. Here’s one that most people missed.
Tuesday evening was nothing short of a bloodbath for Republicans. And the Blue Wave first crashed on the shores of Virginia Beach as Rep. Jen Kiggans would be caught in the undertow in her rematch against Democratic former Rep. Elaine Luria. As of early Wednesday morning, incumbent Republican Rep. Rob Wittman is locked in a too-close-to-call race against Democrat Shannon Taylor. Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) cruised to a fourth term.
But lower on the ballot, Virginians also made an important decision: voters in the Commonwealth passed an amendment to the state constitution to enshrine the right to vote for formerly incarcerated individuals and for people with disabilities who have been deemed “mentally incompetent,” who are often under guardianship.
As of early Wednesday morning, 56.37 percent of Virginians who cast their ballot supported the amendment.
Maria Town, the president and CEO of the American Association of People with Disabilities, told The Political Spectrum before the election on Tuesday how important the initiative would be. Town said that many incarcerated people have disabilities.
“We we know that people with disabilities are overrepresented in jails and prisons, and oftentimes, the kind of largest disability institutions in a community, in a state, in fact, in this country, are jails and prisons,” Town said.
According to a 2021 report from the Bureau of Prisons that surveyed inmates in 2016 found that nearly 38 percent of state and federal prisoners had at least one disability. The report also said that the most commonly-reported type of disability was a cognitive disability, with 23 percent of prisoners reporting one. Among all prisoners, the report found that 24 percent reported “that a doctor, psychologist, or teacher had told them at some point in their life that they had an attention deficit disorder.”
In addition, Town said that people with disabilities who are under guardianship deserve to vote.
“There are many, many states that automatically strip the right to vote from anyone who is put under a guardianship or a conservatorship in some states,” Town said.
According to the liberal nonprofit the Center for American Progress, nine states–Arizona, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, West Virginia and Virginia–bar voting by people under guardianship.
“But just because someone may need assistance and support making financial decisions, for example, does not mean that they should be stripped of their right to vote,” she said.
This comes despite a 2024 guidance from the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division that said that the Americans with Disabilities Act “also prohibits a state from categorically disqualifying individuals who have intellectual or mental health disabilities from registering to vote or from voting because of their disability or guardianship status” and that states “may not subject groups of people with disabilities—including individuals who are under guardianship—to a higher standard than that imposed on other voters for demonstrating the capacity to vote.”
Krina Patel, who has autism and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, said that disenfranchising people under guardianship cuts them out of policies that could affect their lives.
“People with disabilities are already disproportionately economically and socially disenfranchised, and we face increasing barriers to employment, financial independence, healthcare, education, and meaningful participation in our communities, particularly under this Administration,” Patel said. “Restricting our political voice has historically been a way to exclude us from decisions that directly shape our lives.”
The passage of the initiative is also important because just three years ago, Maine voters rejected a constitutional amendment that explicitly said would “remove a provision prohibiting a person under guardianship for reasons of mental illness from voting for Governor, Senators and Representatives.”
Other states like Connecticut allow for people under guardianship to file a petition with a probate court. Ohio, on the other hand, allows people under guardianship to cast their ballot. Town said she and other advocates went to the Buckeye State to register voters a few years ago as part of AAPD’s REV UP, which stands for Register, Educate, Vote, Use Your Power, program.
“When we went and registered voters, many of whom had intellectual and developmental disabilities in a group home in Ohio, many of them were under guardianship and had no idea that they could still vote,” she said. “Some of the things that were said to us were, ‘I feel happy today. You made me feel like a whole person.’”
What I want to know about the disabled vote this year: How many people with disabilities cast their ballot this year versus 2022 and 2024?
What I’m reading: Sara Luterman in 19th News on the right to vote for nursing home residents. Brittany R. Collins in Education Week on how to teach disability studies. Emma Green in The New Yorker about Adam Hamilton, the next senator from Kansas.
Your regular Bam Bam post:
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