Newswise — With mid-term elections rapidly approaching, politicians and voter services alike are doing all they can to make sure that as many voters as possible turn out on Election Day. But there is a lesser-known group that is still struggling with access to the polls – those who are living with or recovering from a mental illness.
There are currently 32 states that have some type of law on the books that limits or prohibits people with a psychiatric disability from voting. Mark Salzer, the director of the Temple University Collaborative on Community Integration, says what’s more, many residence programs for people with mental illnesses don’t provide support, or let residents know about their voting rights, or help them get to the polls.
The Motor Voter Law, for example, requires states to offer voter registration opportunities at all offices that provide state-funded programs that provide services to persons with disabilities, but on a large scale, that’s not happening.
Salzer works with policymakers, agencies, and programs to help people with psychiatric disabilities participate in society the same way the general population does – and that includes voting.
The Collaborative supports a number of initiatives to promote the rights of persons with psychiatric disabilities, including a voter education project that increase the number of people with psychiatric disabilities who are both registered to vote and knowledgeable about what to do in the voting booth.
“The fact that we still have these laws on the books perpetuates long-standing discrimination against people with psychiatric disabilities. While women, African-Americans and others have been acknowledged as having a right to vote, people with mental illnesses are still left out of this right of citizenship because of an illness,” said Salzer.
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