Last week’s midterm elections revealed voters are intent on making their voices heard and that many barriers still exist for voters with disabilities.
The Center for American Progress’ Accessible Democracy Tracker gives New York a three out of five rating for voting accessibility, marking that New York does better than some other states for mail in voting, but registration, information, voting in person and ADA compliance still have room to improve.
To learn more about barriers disabled voters face, BTPM’s Disability Reporter Emyle Watkins spoke with Julia Métraux, Mother Jones’ disability reporter, about her recent story “Voting While Disabled Needs to Get Easier.” You can read her story by clicking here.
AUDIO (Full Interview)
TRANSCRIPT (Full Interview)
This is a rush transcript produced by a contractor and may be updated over time to be more accurate.
Emyle Watkins:
Hi, Julia. Thank you for joining me on BTPM.
Julia Métraux:
Thank you so much for having me.
Emyle Watkins:
Your recent article, "Voting While Disabled Needs to Get Easier" in Mother Jones details many barriers disabled voters face while going to the polls for midterm elections. What are a few that really stuck out to you?
Julia Métraux:
Yeah, so I spoke to almost 10 people about issues that they faced while voting across the United States. And something that was very clear too is this happens everywhere. This happens in what we consider democratic areas. This happens where we considered Republican areas. This happens in areas that flip. And so some things that stood out to me were challenges that people face when it really comes to how poll workers treat them. A Deaf person in Georgia, she told me that every year she gets harassed over using a captioning device. And this really shows that there just needs to be more training for accessibility and all that. And also other issues that stood out. There was a woman in New Mexico who has severe ME/CFS [Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome], also known as chronic fatigue syndrome, where she tried to vote by mail, but at first her county clerk said, "Oh, we never received your information." She was able to fill in some information last minute and get it.
A blind person in Nevada, he told me he tried to access a sample ballot online just so he would be prepared in advance because he's also got kind of heckled for using a magnifying device on his phone a few years before, and he couldn't access a sample ballot because it was not accessible.
Emyle Watkins:
What are some of the reasons voters face these barriers? Are these barriers intentionally created or oversights or both? What did your reporting find?
Julia Métraux:
It's both. So there's definitely an apathy when it comes to making sure a wide variety of disability accommodations are met, but also disabled people, regardless of their race, are impacted by racist voting restrictions that we've seen pop up, especially across the South. For example, in Georgia has made it a felony for certain people to return mail-in ballots. And so that disproportionately affects disabled people and not all disabled people are able to meet the exemption to vote from home. Even though most states, I'd say most or all states that have clamped down on mail-in ballot, there are some disability exemptions, but that doesn't mean everyone is able to access that.
Emyle Watkins:
And I imagine that that kind of compounds when you have issues like the ones that you detailed in your story where churches, for example, don't have to comply with the ADA, but in many states churches are used as voting sites. So, I imagine, the mail-in ballots plus the voting sites, it adds different layers of difficulty.
Julia Métraux:
Yeah, absolutely. So when the ADA was signed into law, there were exemptions for religious sites. Technically, when a church acts as a polling location, it is supposed to be accessible under the ADA, but when you have something at a building that is not required to be accessible, a lot of the time there's going to be stairs. There's going to be something that makes it inaccessible. I'm actually not sure what her polling location was, but I spoke to a woman in Missouri and she showed me that the signs that the Missouri Secretary of State gives out for curbside voting for disabled people, it says inquire within. She's a disabled woman with lupus who doesn't have a partner, goes voting alone, and she found that to be absolutely ridiculous. She was able to find a number eventually, but that's just an example of how things that are supposed to be more accessible also end up flopping as well.
Emyle Watkins:
Among the groups that your article focuses on is voters who are immunocompromised. What are some of the challenges they specifically face?
Julia Métraux:
Yeah. And it's not all immunocompromised people, but some immunocompromised people are definitely still COVID cautious. And so there are definitely concerns about, for some people, for voting in person in places that are not well ventilated. And so in states where they have clamped down on voting by mail and maybe some people aren't able to get those exemptions, then they could be disenfranchised from voting.
Emyle Watkins:
Something else that really stuck out to me from your story is that many voters you spoke to emphasize voting in person when possible. Why is that?
Julia Métraux:
So the Trump administration has definitely done some moves. A lot of them have been knocked down by federal courts where he's tried to restrict when they stop counting mail-in ballots. And that definitely leads to concerns where people want their ballot to be counted no matter which party they vote for. And I have to say it's not true that disabled people are the super progressive group. There's a lot of disabled conservatives, but especially for people who are concerned about how this administration is going, you want your ballot to be counted. And so that's definitely why a lot of people vote in person. Other reasons why people vote in person is, for example, in some states, there was actually a ruling that knocked us down in California. Some states for mail-in ballots don't send ballots electronically and don't let blind people fill out ballots electronically. So going to vote in person is really the only way to vote privately.
And also some people just like voting in person. It can be a fun experience. You get your sticker when you're done and all that.
Emyle Watkins:
Absolutely. And among the sources you spoke to was Maria Town, the president and CEO of the American Association of People with Disabilities. And I know she actually encountered a privacy issue while voting. Can you talk a little bit about that?
Julia Métraux:
Yeah. So Maria uses a mobility scooter and with her mobility scooter, she can't hit the height of, I would say most regular size polling booths. And so when she was at her voting location, there was only one at her height that had a privacy shield of sorts and she didn't want to wait in that line. And so then she went to a different area where she was able to fill out her ballot at something at a shorter level, but there were not privacy screens. So she was not able to vote privately, which is definitely concerning because technically we should all be able to vote in privacy.
Emyle Watkins:
I'm wondering from your reporting, are there issues you found that advocates should be asking their local board of elections about before next year's election?
Julia Métraux:
Yeah, of course. I definitely think something that comes up is asking local board of elections "what range of accessibility needs are you training your poll workers about?" Because disability is really so, so broad.
And another issue that doesn't fall on board of election, but I would still like to highlight, and in most states, ballot measures are written in a way that is equivalent to a graduate level reading level, and that is just not accessible to everyone. And that would need to change by the secretary of state and most states putting forward a ballot measure for then this to be changed. But yeah, that's just another huge access issue that we kind of just accept in most states.
Emyle Watkins:
Well, thank you so much for joining me, Julia.
Julia Métraux:
Thank you so much for having me.
