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As the 2022 midterm election season kicks into high gear, considerable public attention is being given to congressional, state and local campaigns. Primaries are coming to an end and broadcast and social media ads are heating up. I fondly recall the advice given to me as a child in Chicago: “Vote early and vote often.” In Pennsylvania today, we have a different sort of chicanery surrounding local and state politics.
This year’s electioneering seems more and more to be a rehearsal for the 2024 presidential contest. Genuine issues of import, including the fitness of candidates for office, have become lost in a haze of deceptive and deceitful partisan posturing that threatens to undermine voters’ confidence in election outcomes. A holdover from previous years, the 2022 shenanigans are poisoning the body politic, which already seems to be on life support.
Decades-old practices of gerrymandering, and redrawing voting district boundaries, serve to disenfranchise the opposition and further protect the power of incumbent candidates. Bipartisan support for Act 77 — the 2019 voting reform law that gave us no-excuse mail-in voting — eroded quickly amid Republican legal challenges, which Pennsylvania courts found had no merit. So-called election deniers have persisted, but they are the antithesis of democracy and fair dealing.
Overblown assertions of voter fraud, the Big Lie and ballot insecurity have led to restrictive efforts that could suppress vote counts and make it more difficult for whole populations to exercise their constitutional right.
Communities of color, the poor and elderly, and people with disabilities are among these groups. This is a particularly egregious local and statewide trend in Pennsylvania, as well as in other states. Often forgotten in the maelstrom are eligible voters with a disability.
Across the commonwealth, Republican and Democratic candidates have remained silent about barriers for citizens with disabilities who seek access to voting. It is the unspoken voter suppression campaign of 2022. And access and accessibility are the key words in this conundrum.
There are subtle and more overt barriers to voting, which in themselves constitute what the Americans with Disabilities Act termed “the continuing existence of unfair and unnecessary discrimination and prejudice” against people with disabilities. Signed into law on July 26, 1990, by Republican President George H.W. Bush, that legislation enjoyed bipartisan support.
The ADA is a federal civil rights statute meant to ensure compliance by ensuring “reasonable accommodations” and access to public spaces. It builds on the principle enshrined in the 14th Amendment that “No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States.”
The ADA is a broad, sweeping statute dedicated to ensuring that citizens with a disability can “fully participate in all aspects of society.” This includes protections at the ballot box.
According to a 2020 Rutgers University study, more than 38 million people with a disability are eligible to vote. In Pennsylvania, the study showed, more than 17% of the electorate has a diagnosed physical, intellectual or mental health disability. A separate Pew Research Center analysis concluded that this constituency is more likely to vote Democratic than Republican, if they are able to access the ballot.
It would seem prudent for both parties to take seriously the issue of access to the ballot and polling places. However, that seems not to be the case in Lancaster County and other municipalities.
Despite direct appeals to candidates, in Lancaster County each party is an equal-opportunity offender in failing to address issues that restrict voters who have hearing, vision, mobility, cognitive and mental health impairments. So, too, are local grassroots advocacy groups like Lancaster Stands Up.
States and counties manage the election process, and elected officials have a solemn obligation to protect what the ADA termed nondiscrimination and “equality of opportunity.” Voting is one category singled out, with special mention given to eliminating barriers to participation.
Like Pennsylvania GOP gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano, Lancaster County’s Republican commissioners, Ray D’Agostino and Josh Parsons, have been outspoken in their criticism of alleged voting insecurity, but they have been silent on ensuring equal access to either the ballot or the polling place. Efforts to restrict mail-in ballots and the number of drop-off box sites, and limiting the number of polling places, all have a practical effect of restricting access for citizens with disabilities. Voter identification and signature-matching requirements pose other obstacles for those with certain forms of disability.
The official Lancaster County election information website contains details on voting protocols and requirements. This includes forms of assistance available to people with disabilities, and the location of polling places. Much of it is very useful (including the directions for using the accessible ballot marking device), though some of it may be difficult to find. It would be much more helpful if all of the information for voters with disabilities would be available on one webpage, with a link to it clearly marked on the election information homepage.
Other information is incomplete, out of date or flat wrong. Though many polling stations are listed as accessible, they are not. For example, even where there are wheelchair ramps, those features may not comply with ADA access requirements.
Furthermore, the presence of a step or two to enter a polling location works against the spirit and letter of the ADA when it speaks of “‘independence” and “exclusionary” practices. Such simple things can have the practical effect of segregating voters and disfranchising people with mobility needs.
Though reasonable accommodations can be made for people who have hearing and vision impairments, accessing information can be a formidable challenge and thus an obstacle to voting.
As stewards of the public trust, elected officials should cease with hyperbolic claims of voter fraud (in the absence of verifiable evidence) and focus on protecting the right of all eligible citizens to participate equally in the democratic process. Those who seek the privilege of elected office should be willing to use their good offices to assure the well-being of all citizens, including people with disabilities who, despite their best efforts, are the most marginalized.
We may experience this marginalization ourselves: As I have written before, with the graying of the baby boom generation, it is more than likely that disability is your destiny, as it is mine.
Discrimination and exclusion at the ballot box should have no place in American politics, and it is high time our county, state and national leaders took concrete measures to fulfill the vision of an equitable and just society, regardless of ability.
Dennis B. Downey, Ph.D., is professor emeritus of history at Millersville University. His most recent publication is “Pennhurst and the Struggle for Disability Rights” (Penn State Press 2020). He is a member of the human rights team of WellSpan Health’s Center for Autism & Developmental Disabilities, and the past chair of the Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia’s Disability Policy Circle.
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