NYSACRA and its Members believe that employees in the disability service industry and the individuals they serve should have a full opportunity to register to vote and participate in the political process.  Our legislators represent registered voters and they respect the effort made to register and vote.  It is one of our greatest rights as citizens in this democracy.  The people we serve should feel empowered by participating in this exercise.  This is our way to make registering easy and accessible.

Why Vote?  Does My Vote Really Count?

One Vote Can Make a Great Deal of Difference... Your Vote Could Be the One!

Yes, your vote is as important as the President's, Governor's, your neighbors, and everyone else.  It may sound like a cliché, but EVERY VOTE COUNTS!  Below are some examples of one vote making the difference:

• Women won the right to vote in 1920 by passage of the 19th amendment to the Constitution.  Tennessee, the last state needed to pass the amendment, ratified the amendment by one vote.

• John Kennedy won the Presidency in 1960 by just one vote per precinct in Illinois.  One voter in each precinct could have changed the election, giving Nixon 26 electoral votes in Illinois and consequently electing him President.

• In the 1994 Election for NYS Governor the outcome was determined by only 185,000 votes, out of over 5 million votes cast statewide.

• In the 2000 Election, the election for President was essentially determined by only 537 votes in one Florida county, out over 50 million votes cast nationwide.

Disturbing Statistics:

• In 2000 21% of eligible voters were not registered to vote.  That’s about 3 million people.  This makes NY 25th out of the 50 States.

• Only 61% of eligible voters actually turned out to vote in 2000.

• There are over 35 million voting age Americans with disabilities.  Only 41% voted in 2000.  This is 10% below the national average of 51%.

• Out of the 23.5 million individuals with disabilities who did not vote in 1996, 9.2 million were unregistered.  This means that there were 14.3 million who registered but did not vote!

Make Your Vote Count, Register Today!

Disability Voting Rights

Vote '05 NYSACRA Voting & Registration Guide

NYS Board of Elections:  1-800-367-8683 | http://www.elections.state.ny.us

NYS Board of Elections District Search: | http://map01.elections.state.ny.us/boe/main.asp

Federal Elections Commission: 1-800-424-9530 | http://www.fec.gov

NYS League of Women Voters: 518-465-4162 | www.lwvny.org

National Council of Nonprofit Associations:  202-962-0322 | http://www.ncna.org

National Organization on Disability: 202) 293-5960 | http://www.nod.org/political/index.cfm

The League of Women Voters - Democracy Network http://www.dnet.org

PBS Democracy Project: | http://www.pbs.org/democracy

Project Vote Smart:  |  http://www.vote-smart.org

Yahoo Politics: |   http://politics.yahoo.com

Y Vote 2000: Politics of a New Generation http://www.yvote2000.com

FairVote.org, The Center for Voting and Democracy: | http://www.fairvote.org

Kids Voting USA: |  http://www.kidsvotingusa.org

NYS Congressional & Legislative District Maps: | http://latfor.state.ny.us/maps

Participate America Foundation:  |   http://www.participateamerica.org

Rock the Vote:  |  http://www.rockthevote.com/home.php

The Vanishing Voter:  |   http://www.vanishingvoter.org

President Bush on Disabilities: |   http://www.aapd.com/campaign04/bushondis.html