10/22 #CripTheVote Chat: Congressional, State, and Local Elections
#CripTheVote Twitter Chat
Congressional, State, and Local Elections
Saturday, October 22, 2016
8:00 – 9:00 pm Eastern
Hosted by Andrew Pulrang, Gregg Beratan, and Alice Wong, #CripTheVote Twitter chats explored various policy issues important to people with disabilities this year. Our 12th Twitter chat will focus on Congressional, state, and local elections.
You can find the questions for this chat in this post. The Twitter chat will be archived in Storify for anyone who would like to see it in chronological order at a later date.
How to Participate
Follow @AndrewPulrang @DisVisibility @GreggBeratan on Twitter
When it’s time, search #CripTheVote on Twitter for the series of live tweets under the ‘Live’ tab to fallow the full conversation.
If you might be overwhelmed by the volume of tweets and only want to see the chat’s questions, check @DisVisibility’s tweets. Each question will tweeted 4-5 minutes apart.
Use the hashtag #CripTheVote when you tweet. If you can’t join us on 10/22, feel free to tweet anytime before or after with the hashtag.
If you don’t use Twitter, check out the live-stream:
Check out this explanation of how to participate in a chat by Ruti Regan: https://storify.com/RutiRegan/examplechat
Questions for the 10/22/16 Twitter Chat
Today’s #CripTheVote chat is on Congressional, state, and local elections. All the races other than the Presidency.
Let’s look at Congress first. There are 34 Senate seats are up for election this year. #CripTheVote http://www.270towin.com/2016-senate-election/
Republicans have a majority now. Democrats would need 5 more seats to achieve a majority. #CripTheVote
Q1 What are some of the closest, most critical Senate races? Which races are you following? #CripTheVote
All 435 House seats are in play. Repubs. have the majority & Dems. need 30 more seats for a majority #CripTheVote http://www.270towin.com/2016-house-election/
Q2 What are some of the closest, most critical House races? Which races are you following? #CripTheVote
Q3 What kinds of disability issues are affected by Congress? #CripTheVote
Q4 Which state governorships are up for election this year? Is there a gubernatorial election in your state? Tell us about it. #CripTheVote
Q5 Are there any critical state or local level races to watch? Has disability come up during any of these races? #CripTheVote
Q6 What kinds of disability issues are affected by state & local governments? #CripTheVote
Q7 Some may say “down-ballot” elections impact people in tangible ways more than the Presidential election. Agree/disagree? #CripTheVote
Voter turnout for midterm elections is usually low. Source: http://pewrsr.ch/1rOQHQO #CripTheVote
Q8 Why do people vote less in Congressional, state, and local elections? Why is voting during midterm elections important? #CripTheVote
Q9 Aside from the Presidency, which results will you watch closely on November 8? #CripTheVote
Q10 Which races do you feel have the biggest impact on your life and why? #CripTheVote
#CripTheVote crowdsourced a list of Twitter handles for people running for Congress by state: http://disabilitythinking.com/candidates
Feel free to contact the candidates in your state and others with your disability policy Qs! We can all #CripTheVote!
This concludes our #CripTheVote chat. Thanks to everyone and keep the convo going!
Our next #CripTheVote chat will be about healthcare on 10/30, 7 pm Eastern. Details coming soon!
Resources
FiveThirtyEight.com Senate projections
http://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2016-election-forecast/senate/?ex_cid=2016-forecast
270 To Win election maps:
- U.S. Senate: http://www.270towin.com/2016-senate-election/
- U. S. House: http://www.270towin.com/2016-house-election/
- Governorships: http://www.270towin.com/2016-governor-election/
#CripTheVote archive of Congressional candidate Twitter handles
http://disabilitythinking.com/candidates
“Voter turnout always drops off for midterm elections, but why?”
Drew Desilver, Pew Research Center – July 24, 2014.
About #CripTheVote
Resources on voting and people with disabilities:
http://disabilitythinking.com/election-2016-cripthevote
#CripTheVote Facebook Page:
https://www.facebook.com/CripTheVote/
A note on language and why we use the term ‘crip’
http://disabilitythinking.com/disabilitythinking/2016/3/28/cripthevote-notes-on-crip
#CripTheVote is a nonpartisan campaign to engage both voters and politicians in a productive discussion about disability issues in the United States, with the hope that Disability takes on greater prominence within the American political landscape.
While #CripTheVote is a nonpartisan project, we understand that many people have already developed preferences for particular candidates. This is great–we only ask that everyone is respectful in their interactions with each other. Our primary focus here is on increasing engagement with disability issues as a part of American politics and on the need for that we are all in agreement!
Please note we do not represent the entire disability community nor would we ever claim to do so. There are many ways to create social change and engaging in conversation is one approach.
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