BlankBills Threaten Disabled Voters: 'We Don't Have a Voice Anymore'. By Maggie
Astor.
Legislation across the country would restrict voting methods and accommodations
that people
with disabilities are disproportionately likely to rely on.
The experience was so demeaning that Susie Angel did not vote again for two
decades.. It was
1991, she recalled, and she was a 21-year-old learning to live independently
with cerebral
palsy, which she has had since birth. She waited in line at her polling place
in Austin,
Texas, for hours. Then she waited for a poll worker who could help her complete
her ballot.
Finally, the worker refused to take her aside, making her name her preferred
candidates in
full view and earshot of other voters. Ms. Angel, who has limited use of her
limbs and a
speech impairment and uses a foot-operated power wheelchair, left understanding
that, unlike
other Americans, she couldn't vote privately. It was only when she began
working for the
Coalition of Texans With Disabilities in 2010, and learned about the adaptive
equipment
available to her, that she was able to vote independently -- an experience that
brought her
to tears. Now, Ms. Angel is watching the Texas Legislature pursue sweeping
voting
restrictions, afraid that she and others with disabilities might again be
deterred from
voting. 'They're really making it so we don't have a voice anymore,' she said.
'And without
that, we can't get the things that we need to survive. The Texas legislation,
which
Democrats blocked but Republicans plan to revive in a special session, is one
of a series of
Republican voting bills that would disproportionately affect people with
disabilities. The
Wisconsin Senate approved three last week with more to come, though unlike in
Texas, the
governor there is a Democrat and is expected to veto them. Georgia and Florida
have enacted
similar measures. For years, advocates have worked to mobilize Americans with
disabilities -- more than 38 million of whom are eligible to vote, according to
researchers
at Rutgers University -- into a voting bloc powerful enough to demand that
politicians
address their needs. Now, after an election in which mail-in voting helped them
turn out in
large numbers, the restrictive proposals are simultaneously threatening their
rights and
testing their nascent political influence. 'It's only been the last few years
that there
have been studies done showing that if candidates would appeal to issues that
the disability
community cares about, there is such a thing as the disability vote,' said Bob
Kafka, an
organizer with Rev Up Texas, which aims to increase turnout among disabled
Texans. 'That's
why you're seeing it playing out in Georgia and here and other places where the
disability
community is part of the larger fight against voter suppression. The fight also
underscores
the degree to which disability rights, once championed both by Democrats like
former Senator
Tom Harkin of Iowa and Republicans like former Senator Bob Dole of Kansas, have
become one
more partisan football, even though there are millions of disabled voters in
both parties.
The most recent version of the Texas bill would ban drive-through voting,
further limit
absentee voting in a state that already has strict eligibility rules, and let
poll watchers
record video of voters as purported evidence of wrongdoing. Disability rights
advocates
worry that partisan poll watchers will misinterpret legal accommodations --
like a worker
helping a disabled voter complete a ballot, or a blind voter using a screen
reader -- as
fraud. Bills in Wisconsin would restrict who could return voters' ballots on
their behalf;
weaken accommodations for 'indefinitely confined' voters, who cannot vote in
person because
of age, illness or disability; and forbid municipal clerks to correct small
mistakes on
ballot envelopes. Voters who needed help returning their ballot would have to
get it from an
immediate family member or legal guardian if they had one in Wisconsin,
regardless of
distance. If a disabled voter in Milwaukee had a sibling in Ashland, 350 miles
away, it
would be illegal to rely on a neighbor. People with no family in the state
could designate
someone else, but no individual could return more than two non-relatives'
ballots. Stephanie
Birmingham of Sturgeon Bay, Wis., who has the bone disorder osteogenesis
imperfecta and uses
a wheelchair, said the bill seemed to assume 'that people with disabilities
have good
relationships with their family, if they even do have family around,' and that
family
members were less likely than others to commit fraud. Breaking these rules
would be a
felony -- a characteristic of bills in several states that advocates said could
discourage
people from helping friends or neighbors. 'It's made organizations like ours
start
questioning, 'Should we do that? because a simple mistake on our end could put
them in
jeopardy and our organization in jeopardy,' said Chase Bearden, deputy
executive director of
the Coalition of Texans With Disabilities. 'That's a pretty chilling effect. A
spokesman for
State Senator Bryan Hughes, the lead author of the Texas legislation, did not
respond to a
request for comment. State Senator Duey Stroebel of Wisconsin, who is
sponsoring some of the
bills there, called them 'a reasonable balancing of priorities. 'I want to
ensure that
self-certifying as indefinitely confined is not a de facto workaround to
election integrity
measures already on the books,' Mr. Stroebel said, adding of the limits on who
could return
ballots: 'Any current practice for an individual who is not engaging in
orchestrated mass
ballot harvesting should be allowed by our bill. Also, a voter can simply
return the ballot
by mail. Another measure in Wisconsin would require anyone under 65 who applied
for
indefinitely confined status to provide a doctor's note. Republicans say this
-- along with
a photo ID requirement -- would prevent people from claiming the status
fraudulently, and
have pointed to the Milwaukee and Dane County clerks' statements early last
year that,
because of a statewide stay-at-home order, any voter could claim it. After the
Wisconsin
Supreme Court ordered them to stop, the clerks rescinded that advice. The court
later
affirmed that individual voters could decide whether they qualified for the
status.
According to the Wisconsin Elections Commission, 80 percent of people who
claimed the status
last year had ID on file. Disabled voters expressed concern that, beyond the
difficulty of
finding transportation to appointments, the measure would require doctors to
attest to
matters outside their scope of practice -- and that insurers might refuse to
cover office
visits to obtain such notes, deeming them medically unnecessary. Denise Jess,
the executive
director of the Wisconsin Council of the Blind and Visually Impaired, said she
worried that
her doctor wouldn't even be willing to make an assessment about her ability to
travel to a
polling place. Ms. Jess, who is blind, prefers to vote in person because
polling places have
accessible equipment for visually impaired voters to complete ballots
independently. But at
some point, she said, it might become impossible for her to travel safely, in
which case she
would have to find someone she trusts to mark her absentee ballot, and then
find a legally
acceptable person to return it. Lobbying from disability rights groups has had
some impact:
A doctor's note requirement was removed from the Texas legislation, for
instance. At the
same time, some disabled voters have found it difficult to even express their
opposition. In
Georgia and Florida, some who wanted to speak at public hearings couldn't
because they were
at high risk from the coronavirus. Olivia Babis, a senior public policy analyst
at
Disability Rights Florida, said one voter had attended a hearing but, because
of a speech
impediment, struggled to make her points in the allotted 60 seconds. Both
states' bills
passed but face legal challenges. Last month, three disability rights groups
joined a
lawsuit arguing that Georgia's law violated the Americans With Disabilities Act
in addition
to, as the original plaintiffs alleged, the Constitution and the Voting Rights
Act of 1965.
Ms. Babis expressed particular concern about Florida's new rules on absentee
ballot
applications (people must apply every election cycle instead of every two, a
significant
obstacle because many counties' websites are inaccessible to people with
disabilities) and
signature matching (partisan poll watchers can inspect ballot envelopes,
including
signatures). 'People with disabilities are disproportionately affected by
signature matching
as it stands anywhere,' Ms. Babis said, noting that visual impairments, brain
injuries and
other disabilities can prevent people from signing their name consistently.
'Now we're
throwing more people in to potentially challenge signatures, who don't
necessarily have
expertise in handwriting analysis. The Georgia law replaced signature matching
with a
requirement that absentee voters submit the number from a state ID, which poses
its own
obstacles for disabled voters who don't have a driver's license and cannot
easily get to an
office to obtain an ID. Similar challenges could arise under a bill that would
extend
Wisconsin's photo ID requirement to include 'indefinitely confined' voters, who
have
difficulties traveling. When Wisconsin legislators enacted the photo ID
requirement, 'they
maintained this exception for indefinitely confined voters,' said Barbara
Beckert,
Disability Rights Wisconsin's Milwaukee office director. 'There was a reason
for that, and
that reason hasn't changed. Advocates like Ms. Beckert and Kyle Kleist,
executive director
of the Center for Independent Living for Western Wisconsin, said they had
worked with State
Senator Kathy Bernier, a Republican who leads the Senate Elections Committee
and broke with
her party this month when she voted against advancing three bills because of
their effects
on people with disabilities. Ms. Bernier's opposition denied the bills a
majority on the
elections committee, but the full Senate approved them anyway. (Only one other
Republican,
Ron Cowles, cast a 'no' vote.) They now go to the State Assembly, which is also
Republican-controlled. And while some Republicans there have been 'receptive to
acknowledging what the barriers are,' Mr. Kleist said, 'still they're pushing
forward full
steam ahead. Texas Republicans are also undeterred; they have vowed to pass
their bill over
all opposition, and Gov. Greg Abbott, who is himself disabled, is expected to
sign it. 'It
is discouraging,' said Kenneth Semien, an activist with the Coalition of Texans
With
Disabilities and the American Council of the Blind of Texas. 'But I know
advocacy will
continue for the rest of our lives. PHOTOS: Denise Jess, the head of the
Wisconsin Council
of the Blind and Visually Impaired. She said she was worried she would be
unable to safely
vote in person.