Getting Out the Disabled Vote

Like everything else, voting when you have a disability takes more effort, affecting every aspect.  However, I figure if people braved beatings, prison, and forced feedings for the vote, I can quit whining, figure it out, and just do it.   
 
In all fairness, there are many special accommodations to facilitate voting for people with disabilities.  Oregon's mail-in election ballot makes it as easy as possible, but there is always something to deal with.

Issue:  Discussion is limited by my speech impairment.  Solution: Patient listeners.  I'm still opinionated, but slower and slurrier.

Issue: Filling out a ballot requires some hand eye coordination–certainly more than I have. Solution: I make a dot on my choice, and Earl fills in the box.

Issue:  The outer envelope requires my signature.  The only one on record was an old legible signature.  Solution:  I had to send a copy of my new illegible signature to the election board.  Didn't even know they checked.

Issue:  Getting to the ballot box.  True, in Oregon, you can mail it in–that is, if you don't procrastinate.  One year, I did but scooted down to our library to put my ballot in the voting box–just in time.  Solution: Ever since then, I vote early and depend on Earl to take it to the Post Office.


The lesson:  Easier doesn't mean effortless.  But l've learned to focus primarily on what's important. To me, voting is one of those things.