Promising Directions - Tennessee

Get Out the Vote, Four Not-So-Easy Steps

The Tennessee Disability Coalition, the Southeast ADA Center Tennessee Affiliate, has actively pursued accessible voting for people with disabilities. Four of its key activities are presented below:

1. The Voter Empowerment Manual , produced with assistance from the Southeast ADA Center was created by the VOTE! Staff of the Tennessee Disability Coalition. It is meant to be used as a tool by the VOTE! Campaign Committees that are being created all over the state of Tennessee. The manual contains information on how to create VOTE! Committees, how to organize voter registration and Get-Out-The-Vote (GOTV) campaigns, and other vote-related activities. It also contains activities related to access for individuals with disabilities, including ADA Surveys for polling precincts. It contains information about major laws related to disability and voting and has many resources and links to web sites, organizations, and useful information.
   Source: www.tndisability.org/publicpolicy/Voter_Empowerment_Manual.doc
2. Voters with Disabilities and the Tennessee Code – In 2007, the Coalition worked to pass legislation updating the Tennessee Code as it pertains to voting replacing outdate language such as “handicapped voter” with “voter with a disability” as well as redefining the definition of disability to match the ADA definition.
3. During the 2008 Tennessee Legislative Session, the Tennessee Disability Coalition is closely monitoring the Voter Confidence Act (SB1363/HB1256) which requires any voting system purchased to provide the ballot of record be a paper ballot marked by the voter with appropriate accommodation for persons with disabilities; requires such ballot to be available to voter to verify the vote; requires that secrecy of the voter's choice be maintained. This legislation may lead to the replacement of newer DRE’s in favor of optical scan voting systems.
4. The Tennessee Disability Coalition will be working on targeted, nonpartisan Get-Out-the-Vote (GOTV) activities for the August 2008 Tennessee Senate and Representative races and the November 2008 Presidential election. Specifically targeted will be individuals with disabilities in the database who are currently not registered to vote. The Coalition will also be working assisting these individuals with registering to vote.

Note: : use word processing software, i.e. download: Word Viewer). Alternate formats are available upon request.