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Pushing Barriers: The Place of Disability in Politics and Political Science: Disabling Democracy? Disability, Voting, and Political Attitudes

Thu, August 31, 10:00 to 11:30am PDT (10:00 to 11:30am PDT), LACC, 515B

Session Submission Type: Full Paper Panel

Part of Mini-Conference

Session Description

Proposal for 2023 APSA panel
Chair: Lisa Schur
Discussant: Ari Ne’eman

Papers:

1. Kuhlman and Lewis, Electoral Reforms and People with Disabilities: Assessing the Vote Gap from 2008 to 2020

2. Herron and Smith, Disabling the Vote?

3. Scott and Jones, Does Disability Affect Political Party Identification? Evidence from a Household Longitudinal Survey

4. Thorp, Body Politic: Disability and Political Cohesion


An estimated 38.3 million people with disabilities were eligible to vote in the United States in 2020, making them the largest minority group in the electorate. Furthermore, the number of people with disabilities has increased, and continues to increase, with the aging of the U.S. population and the continuing impact of the Covid 19 pandemic. Only recently, however, have people with disabilities been recognized as an important part of the electorate.

Prior studies have found that people with disabilities have lower voter turnout and other forms of political participation than non-disabled citizens in the U.S. While some of the participation gap is due to factors such as lower education and income levels among people with disabilities, other factors, such as stigma and inaccessible voting systems also play an important role. The multiple obstacles faced by people with disabilities has led to their exclusion from equal participation in community life and the democratic process.

This panel is designed to increase our understanding of the relationship between disability and politics. It examines the voter turnout gap and recent state measures that may make it easier or more difficult for many disabled citizens to vote, and explores how disability influences political attitudes and engagement, party identification, and a sense of shared disability identity and group cohesion.

Two presentations examine the impact of state laws on voter turnout among people with disabilities. The study by Robynn Kuhlman and Daniel Lewis looks at the impact of changes in state administration laws on the voting gap between citizens with and without disabilities between 2008-2020, focusing on areas such as mail voting rules and photo identification requirements.

Michael Herron and Daniel Smith look at the impact of a change in a specific state law on voter turnout among people with disabilities. They focus on a change in a Florida law in 2021 that limited assistance to registered voters who need assistance to return their mail ballots. Using publicly available administrative data, they identify individuals in Florida who indicated that they need help in voting. The authors then use turnout data from the 2020 and 2022 general elections in Florida to estimate the effect of the legal change on voter turnout among this group.

Ralph Scott and Melanie Jones focus on the influence of disability on political party identification and support in the United Kingdom, using the UK’s Household Longitudinal Study (2009-2021). The use of longitudinal data allows them to study the effects of transitions in disability status, as well as the extent to which the effects of disability are mediated by changes in socio-economic status.

The last paper, by Joshua Thorp explores individual factors that motivate a large minority of Americans to view people with disabilities as a distinct social group and to view their own disabilities as a political salient aspect of their identities. He also identifies demographic and other characteristics, such as race, age, and disability visibility and severity, that tend to be associated with stronger disability identification, as well as stronger support for redistributive social policies.

This panel is part of a mini-conference on Disability and Politics, which links research on disability in a variety of subfields, such as American politics/political behavior, comparative politics, and political theory, using a broad range of methods, including survey data analysis, qualitative interviews, experiments, and focus groups.

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