As agreement nears on voting changes in New York State, many voice concerns over whether New York is meeting its obligations to its disabled constituents.
The New York State Independent Living Council held a press conference last week to release a report that outlines 92 disability voter discrimination complaints against polling places and workers.
“State lawmakers have a moral and legal obligation to ensure full access to the voting process for New Yorkers with disabilities. They must reverse a shameful practice that has existed for more that 200 years in the history of our state and country,” said Michael Godino, a member of NYSILC.
According to the report, half of the complaints experienced two or more voting access barriers. Out of the 92 complaints, 15 percent were polling place access related; 41 percent were machine access related; 26 percent were ballot access related; and 18 percent were identified as “other”.
One brief description of complaint number 52 reads as follows:
“Complainant [#52] had voted, by choice, on an absentee ballot for the past seven years. She/he voted by absentee ballot on Primary Day 2004. She/he called the local Board of Elections on three separate occasions and was promised an absentee ballot in time for the Election Day. She/he received the ballot late and was denied the right to vote.”
There were many other complaints varying in severity like complainant number 43 who encountered a step while in her/his wheelchair at the entrance of a polling place. Poll workers laid down a one-half inch thick piece of plywood as a ramp. The complainant felt it was too dangerous to enter and was denied the right to vote.
“My wife or someone else has to vote for me……If my neighbor came in the booth with me, the whole neighborhood will know what I voted. There’s no privacy,” complained Charlie Richard, a legally blind member of NYSILC.
He went on to say that the largest minority voting block are people with disabilities and they are routinely being denied their right to vote under New York’s current voting system.
Co-chairmen Assemblyman Keith Wright, D-New York City, and state Sen. John Flanagan, R-East Northport, are in charge of the 10-member committee that must upgrade New York to meet the regulations of the Help America Vote Act handed down by Congress. Both lawmakers agree that conformity is a top priority for New York with nearly $250 million at stake.
The committee panel has agreed that the counties, not the local municipalities, will own the new voting machines.
The issue of machine type has yet to be determined as will the type of identification needed to vote. The storage of new machines also raised concerns among local municipalities. The new electronic HAVA voting machines would require millions in funding and would require better maintenance than lever machines.
“In my county, some lever machines are stored in town barns with highway equipment. [Electronic machines] aren’t going to make it through our winters and our humid summers,” Assemblywoman RoAnn Destito, D-Utica, said.