Who are we?

We are a group of advocates, people with disabilities, friends and family members of people with disabilities, and others interested in seeing an end to the disenfranchisement thousands of New Yorkers with disabilities face every primary and election day.

Where are we?

We are everywhere! From the five boroughs, to upstate, to the north country, to the Erie border. We are sitting next to you, we are your neighbors, we work in the office across the hall, our kids go to school together!

What do we want?

That’s simple. We want to be able to go to our local polling place, get inside, and vote for the candidate of our choice privately and independently. Seems little enough to ask, don’t you think? Yet for many individuals with disabilities living in New York this is still just a dream. Polling sites are physically inaccessible. This means there might be steps at the entrance or the doorways are too narrow. It might mean that there is no designated parking of people with disabilities close enough to the polling site so they can get to it.

Voting machines are inaccessible. This means that people who use wheelchairs can’t reach the levers. The candidates names can’t be enlarged so people who are visually impaired can read them. There is no audio option so a person who is blind could listen to and make their choices thereby casting their vote using an audio accommodation.

What are we doing about it?

Glad you asked!! A lot is going on in the area of election reform. But we need your help!

In 2002 a new federal law, HAVA (Help America Vote Act) was passed. Among other things, this law set forth mandates that provided for physically accessible polling places and voting machines that could be used by people with disabilities. New York is supposed to get over 200 million federal dollars so we can purchase these new voting machines and train poll workers. In order for us to get this money one of the things we need to do is pass some legislation. Well, that hasn’t happened. Talk about gridlock! The Senate, Assembly and Governor have not come together to make this happen! Read more in our “Summer, 2004” newsletter.

Anyway, folks from across the state have been getting together to work on this problem. We’ve attended joint HAVA meetings between the Assembly and the Senate, we’ve written articles for the media, provided testimony for the government, and now we’re starting to collect data.

That’s where you can help. If you or someone you know has a disability and their right to vote privately and independently is being denied…click here to find out more!