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Tuesday, August 16, 2016

Disability and the Election

In The Politics of Autism, I discuss the role of this issue, along with broader concerns about disability, in presidential campaigns.  A recent post noted that the thing that bothers people most about Trump is his mockery of a disabled reporter.  One reason for this concern is that so many Americans either have a disability or know someone who does.

At Rutgers, Lisa Schur and Douglas Kruse have a paper titled "Projecting the Number of Eligible Voters with Disabilities in the November 2016 Elections."  Major findings:

  • A projected 35.4 million people with disabilities will be eligible to vote in the November 2016 elections, representing close to one-sixth of the total electorate. 
  • The number of eligible voters with disabilities has increased 10.8% since 2008, compared to an increase of 8.5% among eligible voters without disabilities. 
  • There will be 62.7 million eligible voters who either have a disability or have a household member with a disability, more than one-fourth of the total electorate.