Heading To The Polls? If You Have A Disability, Here's What To Know
Everyone in America is facing a new barrier to voting this year: COVID-19. But if you have a disability, 2020 probably isn't the first year you've faced one obstacle or another while casting your ballot.
During the 2016 election, a whopping 83% of polling places posed at least one impediment for voters with disabilities — say, a pathway inaccessible to a voter in a wheelchair. And, according to a study by the Government Accountability Office, less than 40% of locations equipped their voting systems for people with disabilities to cast their votes privately: electronic voting systems weren't powered on, for example, or they lacked earphones, or the stations weren't big enough for a wheelchair.
It's a huge problem. that 38.3 million peoplevoters who could have extra trouble voting because of their disability.
