May 18, 2007
BREAKING DOWN BARRIERS
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WTF? It's time for a change, New York! |
Access to the ballot booth is an essential component of democracy — and New York is blatantly out of compliance with the federal Help America Vote Act and Americans with Disabilities Act when it comes to polling place access and related provisions.
Based on lawsuits, affidavits, complaints, and information documented from Primary and Election Days 2006, New Yorkers with disabilities and seniors still face numerous barriers to exercising their basic right to vote.
The New York State Independent Living Council is sponsoring a cross-disability summit on voting access and electoral issues on June 4 in Albany, at the Desmon d Hotel on Albany Shaker Rd., from 8:30am to 4pm. For full information contact Susan Cohen at suec@nysilc.org or 518-427-1060 x6.
Here's NYSILC's breakdown on ballot access in New York:
- At this time, only about half of the state's 7,000 polling places fully comply with USDOJ accessibility guidelines.
- Based on the "Plan B" agreement signed by the State, Federal Judge, and US DOJ, each county had to have at least one accessible ballot counting device available at a fully accessible polling site. Twelve counties opted to have more than one of the new devices available. Overall, approximately 137 of the new accessible ballot marking machines were leased for Primary and Election Days 2006. This amounted to only 1 percent of the State's inaccessible lever machines (approximately 20,000) being temporarily replaced. By law, HAVA called for the replacement of all 20,000 lever machines by Primary Day 2006. New York is blatantly out of compliance.
- New York is one of two states that insist upon exclusive reliance on an antiquated full-face ballot format. The full-face ballot, first developed at the end of the 19 th century, was created more for the convenience of elected officials and party politics. All candidates and races, party affiliations and endorsements, as well as referendum and/or bond issues are squeezed onto a large single ballot face. It tends to be very confusing to the voter, given multiple party endorsements for candidates. Some voters have difficulty making a voting choice because of the need to verify the correct lever according to column and row. The font size is incredibly small in order to accommodate the massive grid needed to pull off the large face ballot, which makes it difficult to read. As a result, the full-face ballot does not lend itself well to 21 st century technology and presents additional barriers to people with visual and cognitive disabilities.
- In the attempt to provide some kind of accessible voting remedy in New York State on Primary and Election Days 2006, the "Plan B" agreement forced each county to have at least one accessible centralized location and at least one of the accessible ballot marking devices. Unfortunately, it never occurred to the planners that they needed to develop some kind of contingency plans for accessible transportation for people with disabilities and some senior citizens who live a considerable distance from the one designated polling site. It was a horrendous barrier for a person with a disability who wanted to use the designated site and needed accessible transportation.
- An intolerable practice occurred on Election Day 2006. It was ignored, but must be addressed before the next election. The New Yorkers with disabilities who used the new ballot marking devices on Election Day cast their ballots in the good faith that they went to local polling places to exercise their fundamental right. Some were voting "privately and independently" for the first time in the lives. However, at the close of the polls, their votes were NOT counted. Lawyers for the two state political parties remanded the new machine ballots with the absentee ballots. In other words, after all the work to achieve an "equal" vote in New York, after all the people with disabilities made the efforts to get out to the designated accessible polling sites, the State unceremoniously dumped and delayed the count of the new machine ballots for almost a full week, like they were just absentee ballots. UNBELIEVEABLE!!!
- Currently New York State is out of HAVA compliance by not requiring all poll workers to receive training in disability awareness.
- Once New York is in compliance with HAVA, and we have one accessible machine per polling place it will be crucial that all individuals with disabilities exercise their right to vote. This will eventually require an extensive get out the disability vote effort.
If you're pissed — get to Albany and get with the activism around ballot access. For full information on the summit contact Susan Cohen at suec@nysilc.org or 518-427-1060 x6.