NYT: Talk to Iowans with disabilities and you will hear the same story over and over: a nightmarish experience in 2016, and repeated pleas that bring only vague assurances that 2020 will be better. The state Democratic and Republican Parties … Continue reading
Category Archives: voters with disabilities
A reminder of a significant population often overlooked when summary stats are compiled. In 2018, 14.3 million people with disabilities cast ballots, more than the 11.7 million Latino voters that year and nearly as many as the 15.2 million African-American … Continue reading
Valley News: When Dee Milliken took her 19-year-old son to vote in November, she hoped the experience would strengthen his ties to the community.Justin Milliken, who has cerebral palsy and a seizure condition and uses a wheelchair, is nonverbal and … Continue reading
Blog post at the Center for American Progress. … Continue reading
Houston Chronicle: The U.S. Department of Justice will monitor Harris County elections, at county expense, for up to four years under the settlement of a federal lawsuit over inadequate access to polling places for voters with disabilities. … Continue reading
Kira Lerner with a must-read: A majority-black county in rural Georgia announced a plan last week to close seven of its nine polling places ahead of the November election, claiming the polls cannot continue to operate because they are not compliant with … Continue reading
The Detroit Free Press reports. … Continue reading
New GAO report. … Continue reading
Paula Span NYT column: Physical barriers at polling places, a longtime obstacle for the elderly and disabled citizens of any age, can prevent older voters’ participation. Voting machines may not accommodate people who use wheelchairs or are visually impaired. The … Continue reading
Wichita Eagle: The ballots of 23 Sedgwick County voters were tossed out Monday under a state law that requires disabled voters to sign their own mail-in ballot envelopes. County commissioners, acting as the canvassing board for last week’s election, reluctantly … Continue reading
AP: Fewer than one in five polling places were fully accessible to voters with disabilities during the 2016 general election, a government report shows — a finding that has prompted federal officials to recommend the Justice Department adopt stricter compliance rules. The … Continue reading
Trevor Ryan, Andrew Henderson and Wendy Bonython have posted this draft on SSRN (UNSW Law Journal). Here is the abstract: While Australia has a system of universal franchise, in the sense of a system of voting that is broadly inclusionary, … Continue reading
Crucial Pam Fessler for NPR: Tens of thousands of Americans with disabilities have lost their voting rights. It usually happens when a court assigns a legal guardian to handle their affairs. Now, some of those affected are fighting to get … Continue reading
Jack Pitney blogs. … Continue reading
Texas Tribune: Harris County, which includes Houston, has violated the Americans with Disabilities Act because many of its polling places are inaccessible to voters with disabilities, a new lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Justice alleges. … Continue reading
Release: The American Civil Liberties Union and Disability Rights Advocates today sued the New York State Board of Elections and Department of Motor Vehicles over online voter registration that is inaccessible to people with disabilities. The lawsuit was filed on … Continue reading
Bloomberg BNA (no link): Implementing an online ballot marking tool in Ohio prior to the 2016 presidential election is an unreasonable accommodation request because it would fundamentally alter the state’s voting system, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District … Continue reading
That’s the lead story in this week’s Electionline Weekly. … Continue reading
Rabia Belt: While America is preoccupied with choosing its next president, a large group is being left behind in the decision-making process. Caucuses are not only places where we decide who will represent our nation, but also sites where we … Continue reading
Important Vox report. … Continue reading
Opinion. … Continue reading
That’s the lead story in this week’s Electionline Weekly. … Continue reading
Doug Chapin: The question of how best to assist voters with disabilities is important, but often difficult to address because there is so little empirical data on how those voters experience the system. Fortunately, we are starting to see researchers … Continue reading
Peter Miller and Sierra Powell have written this article for American Politics Research. Here is the abstract: We examine the extent to which Americans with disabilities vote at the polls or take advantage of convenience voting reforms relative to voters without … Continue reading
A Chapinblog. … Continue reading
LAT: Federal authorities are investigating allegations that California and its courts are unlawfully denying voting rights to some intellectually disabled residents, according to documents released Wednesday. Attorneys for the U.S. Department of Justice in Sacramento have requested records from Secretary … Continue reading
A ChapinBlog. … Continue reading
Access Denied: Barriers to Online Voter Registration for Citizens with Disabilities Published by the ACLU and the Center for Accessible Technology focuses on one urgent issue: the accessibility of online voter registration websites for voters with disabilities. The Cost of … Continue reading
From Oregon comes news of a state lawsuit alleging that more than 4600 ballots have been wrongly rejected on the ground that voters’ signatures on ballot envelopes don’t match those on file. These votes could conceivably be enough to swing the result … Continue reading
Doug Chapin reports. … Continue reading
That’s the lead story in this month’s issue of NCSL’s The Canvass. … Continue reading
Press Release: MADISON, WI – Wisconsin’s polling places are becoming more accessible, but some people with disabilities and the elderly still face significant obstacles when they vote, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Board…. The report is … Continue reading