Disability Voting Rights Week

There are five pieces of legislation that directly impact disability voting rights.

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is a federal civil rights law that provides protections to people with disabilities that are similar to protections provided to individuals on the basis of race, color, sex, national origin, age, and religion. Title II of the ADA requires state and local governments (“public entities”) to ensure that people with disabilities have a full and equal opportunity to vote. The ADA’s provisions apply to all aspects of voting, including voter registration, polling place site selection, election websites, and the casting of ballots, whether on Election Day or during an early voting process, and whether in-person or absentee. The ADA applies to all elections administered by state and local governments, including federal, state, and local elections.

The ADA’s regulations and ADA Standards for Accessible Design | ADA.gov set out what makes a facility accessible.

The Justice Department’s ADA Checklist for Polling Places aids in determining whether a polling place already has the basic accessibility features needed by most voters with disabilities or can be made accessible using temporary solutions.

They also provide Ballot Drop Box Accessibility, Solutions for Five Common ADA Access Problems at Polling Places, very specific rules apply to situations where polling places are inaccessible where curbside voting can be utilized but they can be a valid solution.

The ADA also prohibits a state from categorically disqualifying individuals who have intellectual or mental health disabilities from registering to vote or from voting because of their disability or guardianship status. They cannot impose a higher standard than that imposed on other voters for demonstrating the capacity to vote.

Nor can they refuse to provide an absentee ballot or voter registration form to a person with a disability because the voter resides in a nursing home.

The ADA does not require that voters on crutches or canes be moved to the front of the line, but the public entity should provide a chair for them while they wait. For a voter with multiple sclerosis who may be unable to tolerate extreme temperatures, providing a chair inside the polling place may be an appropriate modification.

Allows the opportunity to register through a state, county, or city website.

Must modify a “no animals/pets” policy to allow voters with disabilities to be accompanied by their service animals in all areas of the polling place where the public is allowed to go

If a jurisdiction requires voters to provide identification, the ADA requires that election officials not restrict the permissible forms of identification for voters with disabilities to ones that are not available to those voters.

Any communications provided for all voters must be made accessible for PWD. For example, election officials should have pen and paper available and be prepared to write out questions at the polling place check-in table for a voter who is deaf and can communicate through written communications. For a voter who is deaf but whose primary language is American Sign Language and not English, election officials may need to provide a communication method that the voter can understand such as a sign language interpreter.

Election websites must be accessible to people with disabilities so that individuals with disabilities can access the same information, engage in the same interactions, and enjoy the same services as nondisabled individuals with substantially equivalent ease of use.

Voters with disabilities may receive assistance in all aspects of the voting process, including in requesting, completing, and returning a ballot, whether in person, absentee, or by mail-in ballot. For example, if a voter with a disability requires assistance to mark a ballot, the voter must be allowed to receive assistance from the person of their choosing and is not limited to assistance from an election worker.

Ditto if voter needs assistance in placing their ballot in a mailbox or drop box

The ADA also prohibits state and local governments from intimidating or coercing voters with disabilities (or people who aid them) in exercising their rights under the ADA.

State laws that restrict people from providing assistance with voting, subject to criminal penalties, may chill assistants from aiding voters with disabilities and thus interfere with voters’ rights to assistance under the ADA, therefore they are not allowed.

Prior to Election Day or the beginning of early voting, election staff and volunteers receive training so they can appropriately interact with people with disabilities.

Many local disability organizations, including Centers for Independent Living and Protection and Advocacy Systems, conduct ADA and disability training in their communities. The Department of Justice and the National Network of ADA Centers can provide local contact information for these organizations.
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA) all offices that provide public assistance or state-funded programs that primarily serve persons with disabilities to provide the opportunity to register to vote by providing voter registration forms, assisting voters in completing the forms, and transmitting completed forms to the appropriate election officials.

The VRA requires election officials to allow a voter who is blind or has another disability to receive assistance from a person of the voter’s choice (other than the voter’s employer or its agent or an officer or agent of the voter’s union).

The VRA also prohibits conditioning the right to vote on a citizen being able to read or write, attaining a particular level of education, or passing an interpretation “test.”

The NVRA requires such offices to provide any citizen who wishes to register to vote the same degree of assistance with voter registration forms as it provides with regard to completing the office’s own forms. The NVRA also requires that if such an office provides its services to a person with a disability at the person’s home, the office shall provide these voter registration services at the home as well.
The Voting Accessibility for the Elderly and Handicapped Act of 1984 (VAEHA) requires accessible polling places in federal elections for elderly individuals and people with disabilities. Where no accessible location is available to serve as a polling place, voters must be provided an alternate means of voting on Election Day.
The National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA) aims, among other things, to increase the historically low registration rates of persons with disabilities. The NVRA requires all offices that provide public assistance or state-funded programs that primarily serve persons with disabilities to also provide the opportunity to register to vote in federal elections.
The Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA) requires jurisdictions responsible for conducting federal elections to provide at least one accessible voting system for persons with disabilities at each polling place in federal elections. The accessible voting system must provide the same opportunity for access and participation, including privacy and independence, that other voters receive.

States can satisfy this accessibility requirement through use of a direct recording electronic voting system or other voting system equipped for individuals with disabilities.

In addition to HAVA, the ADA requires officials responsible for conducting all public elections to make sure that any accessible voting systems are maintained and function properly in each election, and that election officials have been adequately trained to operate them.