TCRP is proud to be a member of the Election Protection Coalition. In this coalition, we work with partners like the Lawyers’ Committee, the Legal Defense Fund, the ACLU of Texas, Common Cause Texas, the League of Women Voters of Texas, and Disability Rights Texas to fight for Texas voters. A huge part of our Coalition’s work is running the non-partisan 866-OUR-VOTE election protection hotline. During early voting and on Election Day, we have trained volunteers available to answer questions about voting in Texas.
Another vital part of our Election Protection work at TCRP is voter education. We create voter education materials that cover a wide range of Texas specific voting topics in multiple languages. And a vital part of our ongoing voter education campaign is writing post-election reports that detail major issues and problems that Texas voters reported to the 866-OUR-VOTE hotline.
During the 2024 Presidential election, we noticed a large spike in the number of calls that dealt with disability access issues. We knew that it was crucial to gather and report on the information we obtained about these issues, and so in commemoration of Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month this month and Autism Acceptance Month in April, we wanted to share some of the most important findings from our soon to be released report on disability access issues.
We would like to extend a very special thanks to our great friends at Disability Rights Texas for their tireless advocacy for the disabled community and their invaluable feedback and suggestions on how to improve our report.
KEY FINDINGS 866-OUR-VOTE hotline volunteers and staffers of TCRP and our Coalition partners fielded 3,988 total calls from Texas voters during the 2024 Presidential election. While every call is important, most of those calls were easily answered questions like “Am I registered to vote?” or “Where is my nearest polling location?” However, 543 of those calls were resolved only after significant follow-up and action on the part of staffers from TCRP and our Coalition partners to answer the voters’ questions or address the problems they were calling about.
All told, 163, or approximately 30%, of all “resolved” tickets were directly related to disability access issues. The counties with the highest number of reported accessibility issues were Dallas (26), Travis (20), Bexar (19), Harris (18), and Tarrant (14).
MOST COMMON ACCESSIBILITY ISSUES SEEN IN 2024:
1) Physical Accessibility Issues- Even though polling locations are legally required to provide physical access to voters with mobility challenges, including ramps, accessible entrances, and pathways, voters reported significant barriers to access. These all too common instances exemplify systemic failures in meeting accessibility standards, hindering equal participation in the election process across the state.
2) Denial of Proper Assistance to Disabled Voters- Both federal and state law require that a voter who needs assistance in casting their ballot due to a disability be allowed to receive the assistance they need from a person of their choosing (except their employer or a representative of their labor union). Despite these legal protections, we received multiple calls about disabled voters being denied the assistance they are legally allowed. These instances all highlight the need for better training for poll workers so that they are aware of disability protections and do not inadvertently or otherwise disenfranchise voters with disabilities.
3) Deficiencies in Curbside Voting- Curbside voting is required in Texas and is designed to accommodate voters unable to physically enter polling places. Election officials are required to post appropriate signage about the availability of curbside voting and provide assistance to voters as needed, while ensuring the voter’s privacy during the process, but multiple voters from across the state called to report that their polling locations lacked this required signage or election workers did not provide the proper assistance to curbside voters. These instances show the need for better poll worker training and the dire need for more resources to be provided to county elections officials.
If you only take away one thing from this post and our report, please let it be this. Improving disability access goes beyond merely improving logistics at polling places. At its heart, improving accessibility is about restoring faith in the democratic process for all voters. Informed and empowered voters are essential for creating a democracy that truly represents all of its citizens, especially the large, diverse, and underrepresented disability community.
So please come back here as we will be sharing both our Disability Access report and more information about rights for voters with disabilities over the next few weeks.
In Solidarity,
Carl Blair
Senior Election Protection Attorney
Texas Civil Rights Project
WHAT DO I DO IF I HAVE QUESTIONS OR FACE PROBLEMS AT THE POLLS?
CALL THE NON-PARTISAN 866-OUR-VOTE ELECTION PROTECTION HOTLINE.
TCRP partners with great organizations like the Lawyers Committee, the Legal Defense Fund, the ACLU of Texas, Common Cause Texas, the League of Women Voters of Texas, and Disability Rights Texas to run the nonpartisan 866-OUR-VOTE hotline. During Early Voting and on Election Day, we have trained volunteers on-call who can answer your questions about voting in Texas.
Kommentare