Democracy. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, it is: “Government by the people; that form of government in which the sovereign power resides in the people as a whole, and is exercised either directly by them (as in the small republics of antiquity) or by officers elected by them. In mod. use often more vaguely denoting a social state in which all have equal rights, without hereditary or arbitrary differences of rank or privilege.”
So Thursday’s local elections showed that either we need a new definition, or things are badly out of whack (again!) for Disabled people.
Around two million people needed a Voter Authority Certificate because they didn’t have other ID which would be accepted at polling stations. Only 85,000 applied. Voter ID is a major barrier for some Disabled people. We’re in a group of people including older people, unemployed people and people without qualifications who are most likely not to have it but to need it. Many older and Disabled people didn’t know they needed it, or found it too difficult to apply to their local authorities. And it matters for those of us in this group, because we are the ones who are most likely to feel the sharp end of decisions made by whoever gets elected.
