Ballot Barriers
By: Daniel Laplaza
Tags: Elections, Civic Engagement, Civil Rights, Disability

Ballot Barriers

Voters with disabilities face obstacles at the polls that deny them their civic rights

New Yorkers grumbled their way to the polls this year, facing the long lines and malfunctioning machines that often plague Election Day.

For people with disabilities though, voting comes with an additional list of problems. Steep ramps, narrow doorways, broken elevators, poorly placed machines and more make it difficult for people with disabilities to cast their ballot.

Since 2003, The Center for Independence of the Disabled New York (CIDNY) has sent staff and volunteers out on Election Day to assess polling sites for accessibility. Monica Bartley, the Community Outreach Specialist at CIDNY and a wheelchair user, was part of a team that surveyed stations during this year’s midterm election.

Although CIDNY is still in the process of finalizing their 2018 report, Bartley said a major issue she identified this year was limited space around ballot machines. “We ask for five feet clearance behind the machine,” she said, “and at least one side so that someone who uses a wheelchair can get around to maneuver to access the ballot marking device.”

She experienced the repercussions of close quarters voting during her surveying. “One of the sites I went to, the space was so limited that in trying to get around to the machine, I was bumping into the woman at the privacy booth beside me,” she said. It wasn’t until the woman yelled, “lady,” that Monica realized she was bumping her fellow voter. “I didn’t have enough space to maneuver,” said Bartley.

Since 2003, CIDNY surveyed a total 1,225 polling sites and found that an average of around 75 percent had at least one accessibility barrier. CIDNY surveyors note details like cracks in the flooring, entrances obstructed by cones and inaccessible doorways that create obstacles for people with disabilities.

Poll workers who mishandle disability-related issues cause additional obstacles for people with special needs. “I’ve come across a couple instances where poll workers didn’t know anything about the Ballot Marking Devices,” said Bartley, “and those who do offer some kind of information, give wrong information.”

Ballot Marking Devices (BMD) display ballots on a big screen that can enlarge the text or read the ballot aloud to voters through headphones. The machine can be accessed with pedals and other assistive technology, to accommodate voters different abilities. BMDs mark a ballot that is then scanned and counted in the same way as the handwritten ballots are.

Bartley once encountered an instance where a visually impaired voter was incorrectly told by a poll worker the BMD is for “people with a disability from their shoulder down.” But according to the 2018 New York City Voter Registration Training Guide, “[a]ny voter, including voters with disabilities, may use the BMD to view or listen to the ballot in any of the required languages.” Bartley said the visually impaired voter was ultimately able to use the BMD only after he argued with the poll worker that he used it several times in the past.

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the federal civil rights law that provides protections to people with disabilities, requires state and local governments to guarantee people with disabilities equal opportunity to vote. According to the ADA website, “the ADA’s provisions apply to all aspects of voting, including voter registration, site selection, and the casting of ballots, whether on Election Day or during an early voting process.”

In 2012, a Federal Judge ordered the New York City Board of Elections (BOE) to put together a remedial plan to eliminate barriers that prevent people with disabilities from voting. The plan required the BOE to provide on-site accessibility coordinators and assembly district monitors to assess these barriers, compile a report from the on-site data and work with third-party experts to make facilities accessible.

In an interview with ABC’s Eyewitness News on November 5th, 2018, Michael Ryan, BOE Executive Director, said the issues on BOE’s end do not stem from a lack of consideration for people with disabilities. “There is this tension between the lack of poll sites, finding poll sites that are approximate to voters in a particular area, and then also getting poll sites that comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act,” he said, “it really comes down to an attention to detail.”

But that attention to detail is what’s missing. According to CIDNY’s 2017 report, “the survey findings showed many of the same problems identified in previous years. This demonstrates that the New York City Board of Elections has not sufficiently addressed the barriers faced by voters with disabilities.”

Bartley said people with disabilities are citizens that deserve the same civic rights as others. “We want to be able to go to the polling site and be able to vote privately and independently, like every other voter,” she said, “in a nutshell, we want to perform our civic duties like any other New Yorker.”