Asbury Park’s Wali Mohammed injured in a car accident was among the 16 million Americans with disabilities who voted in last year’s presidential election, according to a new Rutgers University study. Mohammed says he physically goes to vote in all elections with hope for those sworn in to office. “I just don’t believe they know the struggles that a person with all disabilities, I don’t care what kind of disability, I don’t think they know what they go through every day just to get up in this chair, just to move around,” said Mohammed. Rutgers Professors Lisa Schur and Douglas Kruse crunched Census Bureau data and found more than 62 percent of registered voters without disabilities voted in the November 8th election and nearly 56 percent with disabilities voted.
“I think the good news is that the majority of people with disabilities do vote and clearly they are as interested in the issues as people without disabilities when we ask them questions about do you follow politics, are you interested in the issues there really is not a difference there,” said Schur.
The professors found the disability gap, the percentage between those with and those without disabilities persists across the last three presidential elections. Distinguished Professor Kruse recognized by the Obama administration as a senior economist, calls the gap sobering.
“We were kind of hoping that we would see some closing of that disability gap. But it hasn’t. That means it’s very stubborn and there’s a lot of things going on,” said Kruse.
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