DRCNH Home > News > 1-28-2004 access at polls

Survey finds accessibility lacking at polls
Narrow doors, scarce parking present barriers to mobility

From the Concord Monitor:

By MEG HECKMAN

Polling places are supposed to be accessible for elderly and disabled voters, but a survey conducted yesterday found that many of New Hampshire's 309 polling places don't meet minimum requirements.

About 50 volunteers checked 75 town halls, church basements, club houses and other voting locations. While some buildings were just fine, most had inadequate parking, narrow doors or other barriers making it difficult for anyone who uses a wheelchair, walker or cane to vote.

Although the state constitution has mandated accessible polls for more than 20 years, the law hasn't been enforced. Several disability rights groups recently teamed up to educate voting officials about the law in hopes of making all the state's polls more accessible by the November election.

"Our hope is that by November, a lot of these little issues like signage will be fixed and they'll be thinking about the big ones," said Chrissy Hanisco, an attorney with the Disability Rights Center in Concord who looked at a dozen polls across the state yesterday.

Most of the problems had to do with doorways and paths to the voting booths. Chuck Spoon, a poll watcher for the Dean campaign, spent part of his morning helping a young woman in a motorized wheelchair get inside the Heights Community Center to vote.

"I had to help her get out through the door," Spoon said. "She was not happy a person had to help her."

The snowy stoop and heavy doors made it hard to get inside. The woman also pointed out that magnifying glasses in a few of the voting booths would be a nice touch, he said.

If a community refuses to comply with the law, disabled voters can sue, but Hanisco hopes to solve any problems long before a judge gets involved.

"It's nice to nudge them," she said. "We're giving them the opportunity to fix it, but eventually it's going to come down to 'You didn't do it and we have to enforce it.' "

Some changes would be simple, like hanging signs with larger letters or adding a few extra accessible parking spaces on election day. Other communities may have to take more drastic measures, like moving the voting booths to a more accessible building. Rhode Island undertook a similar project just over a year ago, said Hanisco, and it wasn't very expensive. By moving locations, the state was able to make all its polls barrier-free for around $400 per location.

"You don't have to spend thousands of dollars," she said.

Wednesday, January 28, 2004