From Todd Mayfield, Jefferson City, MO:

November 3, 2008
Rally at Jefferson City, MO, state capitol.

Elijah Roark Mayfield, 12, and Gov. Sarah Palin

From Todd’s account:

“… In the group standing around us there was a dad with a small baby that had Down syndrome, too. When Gov. Palin entered the stage that dad held his baby up high to make sure she saw him — she did and she acknowledged him by placing her hand over her heart and making an adoring facial expression. She didn’t make her way over at that time, but she did continue to look their way several times.

“At the end of her speech, (more…)

Editors of the Denver Post say it’s time for state lawmakers to find a way to care for Colorado children and adults with disabilities who remain “tragically underserved.” State voters last week rejected Amendment 51, a measure that would have raised the state sales tax by 0.2 percent to pay for “services that should be available now to 10,000 children and adults on a years-long waiting list for help.”

An excerpt:

We did not endorse Amendment 51, largely because we think the general budget should serve the disabled and not a special, earmarked tax raised during uncertain and difficult economic times.

So, now is the time to start fighting for that money.

… As we said in advance of Election Day, it is a disgrace that our budget for the developmentally disabled and their families excludes nearly half the disabled population

From KCCI-TV, Des Moines:

Iowa voters overwhelmingly approved a ballot measure to remove outdated language defining mental competency for voting rights from the state Constitution. The measure will eliminate a phrase withdrawing voter eligibility from anyone found to be an “idiot or insane person.” With the revision, the Constitution would read “a person adjudged mentally incompetent to vote.”

Rep. Pam Jochum, D-Dubuque, who advocated for revising the 1857 language, said the change reflects heightened societal respect for people with disabilities. Jochum’s 31-year-old daughter has an intellectual disability.

The measure was leading by a more than 4-to-1 margin with 63 percent of precincts reporting.

From AP/CNN:

All but 11 states have laws limiting voting rights on the basis of competence, denying people voting rights for reasons like intellectual disabilities and mental illness. Advocates are working to help people exercise their rights, but say laws are vague and open to interpretation by the courts.

Others worry that unscrupulous outsiders will attempt to coerce or improperly claim the votes of vulnerable people.

Members of both parties often accuse opponents of trolling for votes in hospitals and nursing homes, notorious places for voter fraud. A former Pennsylvania congressman was convicted in 1998 of filling out absentee ballots in the names of nursing home residents, and similar accusations often surface at the local level.

Voter eligibility is crucial for this population, advocates say, because people with disabilities rely on the government for services.  “It’s very frustrating to see situations where they’re barred from voting on issues that have such an impact on their life,” said Jennifer Mathis, deputy legal director of the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law.

Related stories here and here and here.

From AP/Seattle Times:

Washington voters approved a ballot measure Tuesday that allows a terminally ill person the option of medically assisted suicide. Under Initiative 1000, people could obtain lethal medication by prescription and administer it to themselves.

Patterned after Oregon’s “Death with Dignity” law, the measure makes Washington the second state in the nation with a law permitting assisted suicide.

The measure’s supporters, led by former Democratic Governor Booth Gardner, portrayed it as a compassionate way to allow people with terminal illnesses to end their suffering. Gardner has Parkinson’s disease. Opponents expressed concerns that the measure could exploit depressed or vulnerable people, and devalue the lives of people with disabilities.

… includes a reference to people with disabilities. Check out the third paragraph of the remarks he delivered in Chicago:

“If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible; who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time; who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.

“It’s the answer told by lines that stretched around schools and churches in numbers this nation has never seen; by people who waited three hours and four hours, many for the very first time in their lives, because they believed that this time must be different; that their voice could be that difference.

“It’s the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Latino, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled –- Americans who sent a message to the world that we have never been a collection of red states and blue states: we are, and always will be, the United States of America …

From the Steamboat Pilot [Steamboat Springs, CO]/Rocky Mountain News:

Voters spooked by a sluggish economy soundly rejected a measure aimed at removing thousands of Coloradans with developmental disabilities from the waiting lists for state assistance.

What was touted as this election year’s feel-good measure was defeated by Colorado voters by a nearly 2-to-1 ratio.

… “The economy was the issue,” said Marjio Rymer of ARC of Colorado and chairwoman of the coalition to End the Developmental Disability Wait List. “We couldn’t have predicted the fall of the world economy, but we will be back.”

Amendment 51 would have increased the state sales tax by 2 cents on every $10 to fund services for the developmentally disabled.

County by county results, with 86 percent reporting, from the Denver Post here.