Voters with Disabilities: Additional Monitoring of Polling Places Could Further Improve Accessibility Page: 2 of 78
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SGAO
Accountability. Integrity* Reliability
Highlights
Highlights of GAO-09-941, a report to
congressional requesters
Why GAO Did This Study
Voting is fundamental to our
democracy, and federal law
generally requires polling places to
be accessible to all eligible voters
for federal elections, including
voters with disabilities. However,
during the 2000 federal election,
GAO found that only 16 percent of
polling places had no potential
impediments to access for people
with disabilities. To address these
and other issues, Congress enacted
the Help America Vote Act of 2002
(HAVA), which required each
polling place to have an accessible
voting system. We examined (1)
the proportion of polling places
during the 2008 federal election
with features that might facilitate
or impede access for voters with
disabilities compared to our
findings from 2000; (2) actions
states are taking to facilitate voting
access; and (3) steps the
Department of Justice (Justice)
has taken to enforce HAVA voting
access provisions. GAO visited 730
randomly selected polling places
across the country, representing
polling places nationwide, on
Election Day 2008. GAO also
surveyed states and interviewed
federal officials.
GAO recommends that Justice
expand its monitoring and
oversight of polling place
accessibility. Justice generally
agreed with this recommendation,
but had concerns about
expanding the scope of Election
Day observations.
View GAO-09-941 or key components.
For more information, contact Barbara
Bovbjerg at (202) 512-7215) or
bovbjergb@gao.gov; or William O. Jenkins,
Jr. at (202) 512-8777 or jenkinswo@gao.gov.VOTERS WITH DISABILITIES
Additional Monitoring of Polling Places Could Further
Improve AccessibilityWhat GAO Found
Compared to 2000, the proportion of polling places without potential
impediments increased and almost all polling places had an accessible voting
system. In 2008, based upon our survey of polling places, we estimate that 27.3
percent of polling places had no potential impediments in the path from the
parking to the voting area-up froml6 percent in 2000; 45.3 percent had potential
impediments but offered curbside voting; and the remaining 27.4 percent had
potential impediments and did not offer curbside voting. All but one polling place
we visited had an accessible voting system-typically, an electronic machine in a
voting station-to facilitate private and independent voting for people with
disabilities. However, 46 percent of polling places had an accessible voting system
that could pose a challenge to certain voters with disabilities, such as voting
stations that were not arranged to accommodate voters using wheelchairs.
Most states have established accessibility requirements and funded
improvements to help facilitate accessible voting, and all states reported that
they required local jurisdictions to offer alternative voting methods. In 2008,
43 states reported that they required accessibility standards for polling places,
up from 23 states in 2000. Additionally, most states reported that they used
federal HAVA funds to improve the physical accessibility of polling places.
Further, all states reported that they required local jurisdictions to offer
alternative voting methods, such as absentee voting. At the same time, 31
states reported that ensuring polling place accessibility was challenging.
Justice provided guidance on polling place accessibility and conducted an initial
assessment of states' compliance with HAVA's January 2006 deadline for
accessible voting systems. Since then, Justice's oversight of HAVA's access
requirements is part of two other enforcement efforts, but gaps remain. While
Justice provided guidance on polling place accessibility, this guidance does not
address accessibility of the voting area itself. Justice currently conducts polling
place observations for federal elections that identifies whether an accessible
voting system is in place, but it does not systematically assess the physical
accessibility of polling places or the level of privacy and independence provided
to voters with disabilities. Justice also conducts a small number of annual
community assessments of Americans with Disabilities Act compliance of
public buildings, which includes buildings designated as polling places.
However, these assessments do not provide a national perspective on polling
place accessibility or assess any special features of the voting area and the
accessible voting system that are set up only on Election Day.Source: GAO.
.United States Government Accountability Office
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United States. Government Accountability Office. Voters with Disabilities: Additional Monitoring of Polling Places Could Further Improve Accessibility, report, September 30, 2009; Washington D.C.. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc299384/m1/2/: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.