Election 2006

Amid the squawks of the midterm election sounding from televisions across America, the defining moment of a Democracy is entering a shrouded voting booth and casting a ballot privately for a candidate on Election Day. But for a certain population in New York City — those with physical disabilities — this sacred rite has rarely been performed, as the path has been blocked by obstacles.

“Accessible voting is the cornerstone of any civil rights,” said Lawrence Carter-Long, Network Coordinator for Disabilities Network of New York City. Carter-Long said entering the booth is a “symbolically, psychologically and civically” important right to any citizen, and there is an emotional intimacy attached to voting alone.

The city unveiled five sites during the September 12 primary, allowing voters with physical disabilities an opportunity to vote in a booth. “We had a number of people coming up to us after the primary and saying that this is the first time they have been able to cast an independent ballot,” said Carter-Long. Before the primary, votes were cast via absentee ballot or with assistance inside the booth.

The Avante VoteTrakker Ballot Marking Device was selected by the New York Board of Elections. The new machines are equipped with special devices, where disabled voters can see or hear ballots and can use touch screens and keyboards to vote. Voters with dexterity limitations use rocker paddles, where one of two pedals is pushed by the voter. The “sip-and-puff” is the most advanced accoutrement. The voter blows and sucks through a tube connected to the machine to record the vote. The machine prints a receipt ensuring a proper vote is cast. Carter-Long lauds the technology provided by the state but reported “minor kinks” with the machine.

The changes for disabled voters, however, are not cheap, and many aren’t using the technology. In the primary, only 580 voters used the five sites — which are open for anyone to access — out of 4.3 million registered voters in the city. While Carter-Long estimates 10 percent of the registered voters are disabled, no finite number can be ascertained on disabled voters since definitions vary. “We wish more people were using the sites,” said Valerie Vasquez from the New York Board of Election.

Carter-Long wishes more were using the sites as well, but cited the “headaches” of trying to get to the booth as one reason. “If you live on the Upper West Side, you are not necessarily going to want to come all the way down to Varick Street to vote when your neighbors are going two blocks away,” he said. “That’s a problem, especially when you try to use Access-A-Ride.”

The ride program is known sarcastically within the disabled community as “Stress-A-Ride,” according to Carter-Long because it is fraught with logistical problems. The commute to the polls could take 4 to 5 hours, he said. He worries this will discourage prospective voters.

Vasquez said that the state spent $500,000 for the five city-wide sites, $600,000 in computer software and $1.2 million in a mailing campaign, along with training a special staff to run the polls.

For the critics that decry the spending, Carter-Long said, “We want to be able to go to our neighborhood polling place and cast a vote just like anybody else.”

Changes from the state came begrudgingly and didn’t happen overnight, when Congress passed the Help America Vote Act in 2002.

“One of the central components of the Help America Vote Act of 2002 is that beginning in 2006, for the first time in American history, voters with disabilities, including visual disabilities, will be provided the same opportunity for access and participation — including privacy and independence — as for other voters in federal elections,” said Brian Whitener, Deputy Communications Director for the U.S. Election Assistance Commission.

Under the act, by January, 2006, law required “all voting equipment to be fully accessible by all voters, including those with disabilities,” according the New York Board of Elections.

New York State missed the deadline and was sued by The Department of Justice. The state was the only one in America sued for noncompliance. The Department of Justice and the state reached an agreement which called for five sites in the city during the interim, until the state can make all polling sites accessible.

Vasquez said the city’s 1,369 polling places must be complaint with the act by 2007, which would please Carter-Long and his constituents.