KosAbility is a community diary series posted at 5 PM ET every Sunday and Wednesday by volunteer diarists. This is a gathering place for people who are living with disabilities, who love someone with a disability, or who want to know more about the issues surrounding this topic. There are two parts to each diary. First, a volunteer diarist will offer their specific knowledge and insight about a topic they know intimately. Then, readers are invited to comment on what they've read and or ask general questions about disabilities, share something they've learned, tell bad jokes, post photos, or rage about the unfairness of their situation. Our only rule is to be kind; trolls will be spayed or neutered.
The target of all the new state voter-ID laws is racial minorities, in an attempt to keep the country's first black president from winning re-election. But the new laws don't stop at just hurting racial minorities - they make it more difficult for those of us who are disabled to get out to the polls as well. Just yesterday in Tennessee, the American Association of People with Disabilities protested that state's voter-ID law:
“The state, counties and federal government have spent a lot of money making polling places accessible,” said Jim Dickson, vice president of organizing and civic engagement for the Washington-based organization. “Voting is an amazing experience and it is wrong — wrong — and it is mean-spirited to place a photo ID barrier between a citizen with a disability and a voting booth.”
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Supporters of the law say that because many other forms of ID are acceptable at the polls, the law is no more onerous than policies requiring a photo ID to cash a check or buy alcohol. They also say voters can cast their ballots absentee if they do not have an ID and cannot get one.Dickson, who is blind, said the latter argument is unfair to people like him.
“I have to give up a secret ballot if I’m going to vote absentee,” he said.
The problems with voter-ID laws aren't just limited to stopping people at the polls. In some states, there are new attempts to prevent people from helping potential voters to register. Texas is an example:
