REGISTER AND VOTE. ELECTION DAY IS NOVEMBER 2, 2004! Harnessing Your Power in the Polls Tired of feeling the economic squeeze when you need access to community services for transportation, attendant care, educational resources, and health care? When federal, state, and local budgets feel the pinch, the services that elected officials cut first affect the community that can least afford the budget slash: people with disabilities. There is one very effective way to fight back: Vote! People with disabilities hold some important distinctions: we comprise 20 percent of Americans over the age of 18; we register to vote in the lowest numbers; and among registered voters, we have the lowest numbers for voter turnout. No wonder people with disabilities bear the consequences of the budget ax — we aren't getting out to the polls! Elected officials aren't paying attention because we haven't mastered the art of making them listen on Election Day. How do we make our voices heard? • Register to vote. Most people with disabilities aren't registered to vote, at least 7 out of 10. Contact your local League of Women Voters or go to www.lwv.org/voter/register.cfm. The deadlines vary from state to state. Plan to register before the end of September. Bring some form of identification with you on Election Day. • Organize to get the disability community to register to vote. Contact local disability groups and ask what they are doing to get consumers registered to vote before the end of September. This is a nonpartisan effort and supplies can be obtained from your local League of Women Voters. • Vote on Election Day. Organize rides to the polls. If you can't get to the polling precinct on Election Day, call your registrar of voters ASAP for an absentee ballot and make sure you send it in on time. If people with disabilities voted at the same rate as the rest of the nondisabled population, 5 million more votes would have been cast in 2000. Election Day is November 2, 2004. Your votes count! Angela Katsakis is the Disability Vote Project Coordinator for AAPD. If you'd like more information on voting or participating in a Get Out the Vote Coalition in your state, e-mail her at aapdvote@ earthlink.net. Voting ID tips Be sure to bring identification when you vote, especially if you are a new registrant. Your ID has to have your name and address on it. It can be a government-issued ID, such as a state ID card or driver's license, or utility bills (because they show your name and address), bank correspondence that shows your name and address, or a letter from a government agency that shows your name and address. It can be your phone or electric bill, Section 8 voucher or a letter from the Social Security Administration. Hassled at the polls? If you are prevented from voting on Election Day or are being hassled at the polls, call Election Protection at 1-866-Our-Vote (1-866-687-8683). There are 6,000 attorneys ready to make sure you get to vote on Election Day. Election Day complaints The Department of Justice (DOJ) wants to know if there are difficulties at the polls. If you need to make a complaint, clearly describe the situation and include the exact address of the polling place, the name of the pollworker, county and state in which it occurred. You can send it to: John Wodatch Chief of Disability Rights DOJ, Civil Rights Division 950 Pennsylvania Ave., NW Suite 4039 Washington, DC 20530 or send an e-mail to: john.l.wodatch@usdoj.gov Save the Date for Disability Mentoring Day: October 20, 2004 A Guide for Participants Disability Mentoring Day (DMD) is your chance to get involved and benefit from a program that provides the opportunity to learn more about careers of your choice and meet future employers. DMD also provides employers the opportunity to recruit interns, tap a pool of potential future employees, learn more about the experience of disability, and serve as a mentor to a student or jobseeker with a disability. Employers can also get involved by enabling their employees to serve as mentors or functioning as local coordinators for the community. Everyone benefits! Students with disabilities across West Virginia participated in DMD 2003, including these in Charleston. How can you get involved? Check to see if your community has a local coordinator – an individual who organizes the event in your region. Go to: www.dmd-aapd.org/coordlist/coordlist.html to see a list of local coordinators in every state plus the District of Columbia. For international information, please contact the AAPD national headquarters at 1-800-840-8844 (V/TTY) or 202-457-0046 (V/TTY). If you are interested in being a local coordinator in your community, AAPD welcomes your participation, call 1-800-840-8844 (V/TTY) or 202-457-0046 (V/TTY). What's going on around the country to make DMD a year-round program. Listed below are a few examples of what some local coordinators and DMD participants are doing to help DMD become a year-round mentoring/career exploration program: • For an example of how one state is implementing DMD in counties around that state: Local Coordinator: Joan Kester, Pennsylvania Office of Vocational Rehabilitation, Harrisburg, PA Voice: 717-787-6695 or 717-783-5221 (TTY) E-mail: joakester@state.pa.us. From Joan's office, DMD is organized across various agencies, such as the state department of education, the state vocational rehabilitation agency and school districts, and activities are now occurring year-round. • For an example of how mentoring is effectively implemented in rural communities: Local Coordinator: Kerrie Bacon, Kansas, MO Voice: 785-296-6527 (TTY) E-mail: Kerrie.Bacon@hr.state.ks.us Through close cross-organizational collaboration under the Kansas Commission on Disability Concerns, Kansas has been leading the way in showing how rural communities can make mentoring an ongoing effort. • For an example of effective mentoring through statewide collaborations with industry, nonprofits and government: Local Coordinator: Peter Pike, Denver, CO Voice: 303-315-1271, Ext. 4 or 303-837-8964 (TTY) E-mail: Peter.Pike@uchsc.edu Through Colorado Project WIN, students and job seekers with disabilities are matched with employers who are actively looking to hire people with disabilities to fill existing job vacancies. • For an example of how participating employers have used DMD as a means to find prospective employees with disabilities: Local Coordinator: Katherine McCary Voice: 804-782-7181 E-mail: Katherine.McCary@SunTrust.com. SunTrust Banks in cooperation with the Virginia Business Leadership Network has effectively used DMD to identify prospective job seekers, ultimately trained and then hired as full-time employees. AAPD encourages you to contact these local coordinators to learn more about their programs and how to duplicate them in your community, or to contact other local coordinators listed on the DMD website to get involved in a mentee or mentor capacity. For general DMD information, please visit the DMD website at www.dmd-aapd.org or call the AAPD office at 1-800-840-8844 (V/TTY) or 202- 457-0046 (V/TTY).