A study by researchers at Rutgers University has found that voter turnout among people with disabilities rose significantly in the 2008 presidential election, according to a press release from the American Association of People with Disabilities.

The study, by Profs. Lisa Schur and Douglas Kruse of the university’s School of Management and Labor Relations, found 14.7 million Americans with disabilities voting in the 2008 election. This compared with 10.9 million in the 2000 presidential election.

According to Kruse and Schur, the turnout of people with disabilities was only 7 percentage points lower than that of people without disabilities in the November 2008 election. Among the voting eligible population (citizens age 18 or older), 57.3 percent of people with disabilities voted, compared to 64.5 percent of people without disabilities.

“While the voting numbers among people with disabilities in 2008 indicates that they continue to face barriers in registration and voting, the fact that 14.7 million people with disabilities voted shows that they play an important role in the political process,” said Schur.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 30th, 2009 at 10:25 am and is filed under accessibility, research news, voting. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.  Email This Post