Over 30 seniors and individuals with disabilities gathered at the Staten Island Center for Independent Living (SICIL) over the summer to see, hear, and touch a ballot marking device (BMD) and learn how to use the accessible tool to cast their votes come election day in November.
Ariel Merkel, the ADA Coordinator at the Board of Elections in the City of New York, shared the process of operating the voting machine, reminiscent of a 1990s desktop computer. One of the key functions voters particularly appreciated was the new privacy button. This feature is especially important to one longtime voter with a disability who recounted how a poll worker at her voting site wrongfully looked at her answers and made “sarcastic humming sounds.” Merkel apologized for the experience, explaining that “all New York State voters are protected by federal laws, such as the Voting Rights Act and Help America Vote Act, to vote privately if you choose or have someone you trust assist you.”
But support to cast votes is being debated in certain states, such as Alabama, where, according to the ACLU Alabama, if passed, “Senate Bill 1 will make it a felony for absentee ballot applications or ballots to be distributed, ordered, requested, collected, completed, obtained, or delivered by a person other than the absentee voter.”
New Disabled South, an organization that prioritizes democracy, offers the following explanation of this bill on their Plain Language Policy Dashboard, which makes complex legislations easier to understand: it is illegal to ask for or give out someone else’s absentee ballot application or ballot under Senate Bill 1, with the exception of people who are blind, otherwise disabled, or can’t read or write on their own. They can get help with the ballot from a specified list of people. Not among those permitted to help are personal care assistants, who are often among the most trustworthy people for disabled individuals.
In Wisconsin, voting rights groups sued the Wisconsin Elections Commission over accessibility. While people with print disabilities can request an electronic ballot to print and mark, they are required to mail the ballots back or return them in person, thereby denying them the right to a secret ballot due to a need for assistance.
While voting by mail has its own accessibility barriers, so does voting in person. According to the Brennan Center for Justice, in 2020, turnout among New York voters with disabilities was nearly 4% lower than that of voters without disabilities because of access issues such as poorly marked parking spaces, narrow doorways, and blocked paths of travel. Data from in-person poll site accessibility surveys conducted by Disability Rights New York found that of the 179 early voting poll sites across 57 surveyed counties, 94% were not fully accessible to voters with disabilities.
Even though there are still many inaccessibility and privacy issues to navigate, the disability vote is important. Wheelchair user Latavia Sturdivent urges her peers: “Get out and vote! Oftentimes in the disabled community we feel like our voices are not heard. Voting ensures that our voices are heard.”