2016 ADA CHECKLIST FOR POLLING PLACES

POLLING PLACE ACCESSIBILITY IS REQUIRED BY THE AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is a federal civil rights law that provides protections to people with disabilities to ensure that they are treated equally in all aspects of life. 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 polling places (or vote centers). Voting at one’s polling place allows voters the chance to interact with neighbors and candidates who talk with voters outside the polling place, and to ask questions of or receive assistance from trained pollworkers inside the polling place. Simply put, voting in person at a local polling place is the quintessential American voting experience.

In communities large and small, people cast their ballots in a variety of facilities that temporarily serve as polling places, such as libraries, schools, and fire stations, or churches, stores, and other private buildings. Voters include people with a variety of disabilities, such as those who use wheelchairs, scooters, or other devices, those who have difficulty walking or using stairs, or those who are blind or have vision loss. They are people, young and old, who have come to their polling place to exercise their right to vote. Many public entities report that their polling places are accessible. However, the Government Accountability Office estimates that only 27% of polling places were accessible to people with disabilities in the 2008 elections.¹ This means that 73% of the polling places used in 2008 had architectural barriers that made it difficult or even impossible for people with disabilities to enter their polling place and vote side by side with their neighbors.

People with disabilities must have the opportunity to be full participants in an integrated civic event. The ADA requires that public entities ensure that people with disabilities can access and use all of their voting facilities. Because a mix of public and private facilities are used as polling places, public entities may ensure Election Day accessibility of a polling place by using low-cost temporary measures, such as portable ramps or door stops, rather than necessarily making permanent modifications to a facility. If temporary measures will not fix a barrier, and public entities are unable to make a permanent modification to fix the barrier, then the public entity must look for an alternative, accessible polling place. In some circumstances, when a public entity is unable to identify or create an accessible polling place for a particular voting precinct or ward, election administrators may instead use an alternative method of voting at the polling place.²  Public entities are encouraged to make permanent modifications to their facilities used as polling places, such as schools, community centers, and town halls. The use of temporary measures to provide access to polling places on Election Day does not change a public entity’s obligations under the ADA to ensure that its other programs and services are accessible to people with disabilities," or does it mean that a temporary remedy would be appropriate in a public facility on an everyday basis.