Report: Voters With Disabilities Still Face Discrimination At Polls
By Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express
October 24, 2006

NEW YORK, NEW YORK--Millions of American citizens with disabilities and limited proficiency in the English language face unnecessary barriers to voting, despite federal voting laws, a national non-partisan public policy and research center has revealed.

In its "Challenges to Fair Elections" briefing paper released October 20, Demos said that many states and cities continue to violate ballot access requirements under the federal Voting Rights Act and the 2002 Help America Vote Act. The paper noted that people with disabilities and the U.S. Justice Department have sued several states and local jurisdictions for failing to provide accessible polling sites and voting systems that would allow voters with certain disabilities to independently cast a secret ballot without having to disclose their choices to another person.

"America cannot fulfill the promise of our democracy when many of our citizens are denied the basic tools they need, and are guaranteed by law, to access the polling place or understand the ballots they will cast on Election Day," said Demos President Miles Rapoport in a press statement. "We need strong, immediate enforcement of the laws that Congress has enacted to protect these rights."

Related:
"Report -- Ballot Access for Language Minority Voters and People with Disabilities" (Demos)
http://www.demos.org/pubs/CFE_access_101906.pdf

---

Reproduced here under special arrangement with Inclusion Daily Express international disability rights news service.
© Copyright 2006 Inonit Publishing. Please do not reprint, publish or distribute without permission.