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Voting Reforms

ISSUE:

The National Organization on Disability reports that more individuals with disabilities voted in the November 2000 general election in Wisconsin than at any other time in history. The availability of same-day registration in Wisconsin is one reason more voters with disabilities were able to cast ballots, along with renewed interest in voting as the closeness of the presidential election became apparent. Individuals with disabilities, however, are still much less likely to vote than individuals without disabilities. Part of the reason for lower voter turnout among people with disabilities is inaccessible voting systems posing barriers to voting a secret ballot.

Across the nation:

• Most voting systems are inaccessible for people with disabilities and do not provide many people with disabilities the opportunity to vote a secret ballot.
• About 34% of the voting systems are punch card systems, 18.6% are lever systems, 27.3% use optical scan, 9.1% use direct recording electronic (computer) systems, 1.6% use a paper ballot, and 9.1% are a mixture of the preceding systems.
• Punch card ballots are particularly difficult to use by people with vision impairments or arm or hand mobility impairments.
• According to the Federal Election commission, there are at least 20,000 polling places across the country that are physically inaccessible.
• In most elections, approximately 2% of all ballots are discarded due to voter error.
• Data on the accessibility of polling sites specific to Wisconsin is not collected.

POSITION:

The WCDD supports using polling places which are physically accessible to people with all disabilities, and voting reforms which enable people with disabilities to vote a secret ballot.

LEGISLATIVE INITIATIVES:

WCDD supports the following legislative initiatives:

• Maintain the availability of same-day registration in Wisconsin.
• Require municipalities, towns, and villages to report on the accessibility of polling sites to the State Elections Board, and to provide a plan for making each site accessible by the year 2006.
• Require the State Elections Board to report to the Governor and Legislature the costs, accessibility advantages, and disadvantages of using direct recording electronic systems compared with other voting mechanisms in every polling place.
• Require social service and other non-profit agencies to offer voter registration to consumers.

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21. State Centers for the Developmentally Disabled
22. Voting Reforms
23. Welfare Reform & People with Disabilities