GAO to study accommodations for voters with disabilities

This Election Day, the General Accounting Office will be visiting several counties across the country to see how well polling places accommodate voters with disabilities.

Sens. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, and John McCain, R-Ariz., asked the GAO to conduct a nationwide study Nov. 7 to determine how well states are complying with a 1984 federal law that requires them to improve access to registration and polling facilities for the elderly and people with disabilities.

The Voting Accessibility for the Elderly and Handicapped Act (VAA) requires each state to provide the necessary voting aids for people with physical handicaps-for example, ramps-and for those with visual or hearing impairments.

"This presidential year, we have a unique opportunity to examine the issue of voting accessibility for people with disabilities," Harkin said. "We believe that the results of this investigation will lay the groundwork for reform. We intend to work across party lines to make sure that the right to vote is real for the millions of Americans with disabilities."

For the study, GAO chose a random sample of 100 counties across the country, and is visiting three to five randomly selected polling places in each one. GAO staff will assess voter accessibility based on observations and measurements taken inside and outside the voting facility of voting equipment and the voting room itself.

The GAO will also collect information from state and county election officials on their accessibility policies and on challenges to improving voting access.

Voters will not be interviewed for the study.

GAO will specifically be focusing on state and county standards regarding voter accessibility for people with disabilities; barriers to improving accessibility; and rates of compliance with VAA.

According to Harkin's office, a study done by a coalition of disability groups in New Hampshire during the 1996 presidential primary found that 60 percent of 100 polling places studied failed to accommodate people with disabilities.