This OTYCD entry originally posted in November 2017.
Look carefully at your local polling place. Is it accessible to the disabled? Make note of what needs improving, and ask local electoral officials to make fixes before the 2018 midterms.
Today is November 7, 2017. Many state and local elections will take place. (Best of luck to the candidates OTYCD wrote about who are running in Virginia, New Jersey, and Manhattan.) If you’re going to the polls today, please look carefully at your local site and note how well it serves your disabled neighbors.
If you see things that need fixing, please bring them to the attention of your local electoral commission so they can be addressed before the 2018 midterms.
A note on photography: While you shouldn’t have problems taking photos of the exterior of the polling site, be careful when taking photos inside the voting area. Never photograph filled-out ballots, and make sure to take your photos when there’s no chance of a filled-out ballot appearing in your shot. If you end up needing to send your photos to state or local election officials, take care to blur the faces of any voters who are visible, to protect their privacy.
Things to look for:
Are there accessible parking spots near the poll site? Are they clearly designated and marked as such? Is at least one of the parking spots van-accessible (There’s a parking space and an area to one side of the parking space that’s painted with white or yellow diagonals)?
Are there ramps or a side entrance with no stairs that a disabled person could use to enter the building? Are the entrance doors wide enough to admit a wheelchair and easy for a wheelchair user to open (no funky old locks or latches)?
Once inside the building, are there sufficient elevators and ramps to allow disabled people to reach the area where the voting booths are placed? Are the elevators wide enough for a wheelchair? Are the elevator buttons at a height that wheelchair users can reach (no higher than four feet from the floor)?
Are there signs that point voters to the polling site? Where are they hung? How legible are the signs–are they clearly written and clearly printed? If your community speaks more than one language, are there signs in every major language? (If the poll provides ballots in that language, it should have signage in that language, too.)
Is the actual voting area laid out in a way that would allow wheelchair users to get around easily?
Is there at least one booth that’s wide enough to accommodate a wheelchair? Does it have a writing surface that’s at a height that would be useful to a wheelchair user?
Is there at least one vote-tally machine that is designed for use by wheelchair users?
What options are provided for blind voters, and for people who don’t use wheelchairs but who might need to sit to fill out their ballot?
Is there a long line to vote? (If you have a stopwatch function on your phone, use it to time the length of the wait.) Was the weather bad or challenging in any way? What accommodations are there (if any) for people who cannot stand for extended periods of time?
If the site cannot be made sufficiently accessible for disabled voters, does it offer curbside voting instead?
Another note for those who have disabled friends who want to vote: Do not advocate for them unless they explicitly ask you to help them.
If they do ask you for help, listen to what they say, watch what they do, and be alert to their needs. When in doubt, ask them what they want you to do. When you’re both in doubt, you might want to call your state Protection and Advocacy Hotline (scroll down for the link).
If you do spot something that seems like a problem, do not storm up to a pollworker and demand it be fixed then and there. Instead, compose an email or letter, or write down a script to use when calling the officials who choose, equip, and operate polling places.
Stay factual. Stick to describing what you saw, explaining why it’s problematic, and asking what can be done to make it better.
Keep following up on your request with the goal of fixing things before the 2018 primaries take place.
If you or someone who came with you to the polls are denied their right to vote–for any reason–you can call the Election Protection Coalition Hotline. A trained lawyer will answer and help with troubleshooting:
1.866.OUR.VOTE (1.866.687.8683)
If you or a disabled friend hit a disability-related problem that stops you from voting, you can call your state’s Protection and Advocacy Voter Hotline:
Directory of Protection and Advocacy Voter Assistance Hotlines 2016
Here’s a link that will help you find your state or local election officials:
https://www.usa.gov/election-office
Here’s a link to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Checklist for Polling Places:
Click to access votingchecklist.pdf
Subscribe to One Thing You Can Do by clicking the blue button on the upper right or checking the About & Subscribe page. And tell your friends about the blog!
See the National Disability Rights Network’s page on voting:
http://www.ndrn.org/en/public-policy/voting.html
See the National Council on Independent Living’s links to resources on making the vote accessible:
Special thanks to Sarah at the National Council on Independent Living for her help with researching this post.
One Thing You Can Do 