Inaccessible polling sites affect voting by disabled
Inaccessible voting sites continue to prevent many individuals with disabilities from casting ballots across the U.S. According to a recent report by Rutgers University, voter turnout for people with disabilities in the 2016 general election was 5.7 percentage points lower than among people without disabilities.
Rutgers researchers said New Mexico was the state with the highest rate of voters with a disability, at 19.1 percent — or a total of 301,000 eligible voters.
Mobility impairment was the most common disability, the report said, and many of these voters faced barriers at the polls.
A 2017 study by the Government Accounting Office also cited inaccessibility issues at voting sites. The most common impediments were ramps too steep for wheelchair use, a lack of signage for the blind, a lack of signs directing voters to accessible paths, poor parking and rough paths leading to voting places, the study said.
Because of these barriers, GAO investigators said, many polling places have offered curbside voting, an accommodation that is not always confidential and impedes some individuals from casting a private and independent vote.
Recently, the U.S. Department of Justice announced similar findings in a May 7 settlement agreement with Coconino County, Ariz.
As part of the DOJ settlement, the county agreed that the otherwise inaccessible polling places would be made accessible by the 2018 election through a number of means, including installing portable ramps, relocating furniture, posting signage and removing various other barriers.
Coconino County is 100 miles from the New Mexico border. The county seat is Flagstaff, and the county includes the Havasupai Nation, Hualapai Nation and Kaibab Indian Reservation, and parts of the Navajo Nation. Native Americans comprise nearly 30 percent of the county’s population and most are Navajo.
Almost 40,000 of the Navajo Nation’s 300,000 members report a disability, according to the 2014 Community Survey by the U.S. Census Bureau.
New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver told the Associated Press that Native American precincts in the state had the lowest voter turnout rates in the 2016 general election, with only 56 percent of voters casting ballots versus a 62 percent overall turnout rate in New Mexico.
It is often difficult for Native Americans with disabilities to even get to the polls in their rural communities, due to a lack of accessible transportation.
The Native American Disability Law Center, with offices in Farmington and Gallup, collaborated with the Navajo Nation Advisory Council on Disabilities on a 2013 to survey the accessibility of 25 polling sites in five major communities across the Navajo Nation that host tribal, state, county and federal elections.
Many of these polling sites are Navajo Chapter Houses, which serve as administrative offices and communal meeting places.
According to the Disability Law Center survey, such sites often have ungraded dirt parking lots, and the buildings lack ramps or doors wide enough to accommodate a wheelchair.
A 2016 ADA Checklist for Polling Places, designed by the Justice Department to help officials determine whether a facility being considered is accessible to people with mobility or vision disabilities, and whether modifications can be made to ensure accessibility, is available at www.ada.gov/votingck.htm.
Written complaints and allegations of violations of inaccessible polling places are accepted by the New Mexico Secretary of State’s Office. Their online complaint form is available at www.sos.state.nm.us/ Voter_Information/Voter_Complaint.aspx