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Polling places not ADA accessible
| Francesca Olsen/Hudson-Catskill Newspapers Helen Benlisa and Donald Wyckoff from the Catskill Center for Independence check the poll site at Philmont Town Hall for accessibility requirements. Benlisa dn Wyckoff said most of the poll sites they survey do not meet those requirements. |
By Francesca Olsen
A study of polling places in Columbia County currently underway has yet to find one polling place that is compliant with the Americans With Disabilities Act checklist for voting sites or with standards outlined in the 2002 Federal Help America Vote Act.
Project HAVA, run by The Catskill Center for Independence, based in Oneonta, is funded by a grant from the New York State Commission on Quality Care and Advocacy for Persons with Disabilities. The project aims to give technical assistance and training to boards of election in the 52 counties above Westchester County in New York, as well as monitor HAVA implementation in poll sites across the state.
Helen Benlisa, the Catskill Center’s HAVA Coordinator, and Don Wyckoff, a consultant on architectural barriers, have visited half of the county’s polling places so far and have found none of them to be fully compliant with HAVA or ADA.
“Nobody understands truly what ‘accessible’ means,” said Wyckoff. “What we’re trying to do is make sure that people know what the definition is.”
There is a lengthy ADA checklist for polling places, specifying accessibility requirements for the inside and outside of polling places. Wyckoff and Benlisa check for clearly marked parking that meets space requirements, proper signage, door hardware, signage indicating the route for disabled access to an accessible polling area, height of ground and floor surfaces, how much force is needed to pull a door open, door width, changes in elevation, and more. They have checked close to 200 poll sites so far.
The idea of “usable” versus “accessible” is a general theme. “It’s not nitpicking,” said Wychoff. “It has to meet HAVA standards.” Signage marking parking areas for the disabled must be between 5 and 7 feet off the ground. Curbs cut over a half inch from the ground are technically considered inaccessible. Doors must have a level landing, rugs can’t be loose, and doors must be wide enough for a wheelchair to get through, and light enough to be opened by a light grip.
A poll site in Mellenville, for example, has no marked disabled parking, and the rocky gravel that makes up the building’s driveway is tough ground for a wheelchair to cover. A poll site at Philmont Village Hall has a ramp to accommodate wheelchairs, but the rail is two inches shorter than the ADA requires.
Because of the way the ramp is built, someone in a wheelchair would have to balance on a slight slope on the ramp in order to position themselves in a way where they could reach and use the door handle to open the door. Multitasking in a wheelchair, Wyckoff said, is difficult, and such positioning might result in the chair rolling backward, making for a frustrating and potentially dangerous scenario.
The poll site at the A.B. Shaw Fire Company building in Claverack has similar deficiencies. No disabled parking is marked, and a door at the bottom of the building that meets width requirements opens into a sharp slope that would send a wheelchair straight into a second door that must be opened to enter the building. The poll site at 401 State Street in Hudson is deficient, Wyckoff and Benlisa demonstrated, because of a curb that is cut too high and inconsistencies in the elevation of pavement laid outside the building.
Wyckoff and Benlisa said that when they inspect poll sites, they often are told by election workers that the door to a building is propped open for election day, or that the sites are compliant, or that disabled voters in their community use absentee ballots and do not come to polling places to vote. “Part of this process is changing a mindset,” said Benlisa.
“The whole point is for people to be able to access their polling site independently,” said Benlisa. “Even within the disabled community, there’s a lot of discrepancy -- there are a lot of people who say, ‘it’s usable. That’s good enough.’”
Attempts to comply with ADA requirements are a good start, said Wyckoff, but it can’t end there. For instance, cones must mark off parking spaces as disabled parking and drop off zones, even as temporary solutions for election day (the ADA checklist requires that three standard parking spaces be marked off as a drop off zone).
“They might be helpful, but if they’re not set up properly, then what’s the point of having them?” Wyckoff asked.
A general lack of knowledge of the legal definition of “accessibility”, Benlisa and Wyckoff agreed, was at least partially responsible for the general lack of compliance. “We’re not an authority in the sense that we can legally say, ‘you have to make it accessible’, but they do. It’s the law,” said Benlisa. “We don’t have the right to decide how somebody votes. It’s their job to make voting accessible. Period. End of story.”
“We see a lot of good faith efforts,” said Wyckoff. “People really are generally caring, but there’s no oversight whatsoever.”
In 2007, a survey done by the Independent Living Center of the Hudson Valley of all poll sites in Columbia County found most of the sites to be in compliance. “We have a narrative for each poll site,” said Virginia Martin, Democratic commissioner of elections for Columbia County. “Either it was compliant, or it needs a lot of things, or a few things.”
“I certainly believe the findings they found were accurate,” said Donald Kline, Republican commissioner of elections for Columbia County. Kline said that the majority of poll sites studied by the Independent Living Center of the Hudson Valley identified a lack of markings directing disabled voters to access points. “We did order all the materials that were recommended so that we could comply,” he said.
In Columbia County, around $20,000 in HAVA funds have provided for materials for improvements to each of the county’s 42 poll sites.
“(The Catskill Center) may be absolutely right that some of the poll sites don’t meet their standards,” said Martin. “That’s why we have started all these new part time positions. That’s also why we are hiring 22 poll site specialists. One of the key responsibilities are to make sure the poll sites are ADA compliant.”
In anticipation of the election season, the county Board of Elections has decided to hire two HAVA specialists, to be trained in the county, as well as 22 poll site specialists. They will travel from poll site to poll site helping election workers become aware of HAVA requirements and familiarize them with how to use ballot marking devices.
“This is something that needs to be looked at very carefully,” said Martin. “We’re very concerned about it. It’s at the top of our agenda right now.”
The BOE has also entered into a contract with disabled voter advocate Susan Cohen of Voting Access Solutions for a training and sensitivity program designed for county election workers. The cost was $16,500, also from HAVA funding.
“We’re going to be working in conjunction with the independent living centers and organizations for people with disabilities,” Martin said. “We’ll be listening to them, taking their input, and using that to improve each one of our poll sites so that voters with disabilities can come there and vote comfortably.”
For more information on accessibility requirements as outlined by the ADA, visit www.ada.gov/pubs/ada.htm; for more information on HAVA, including the full text of the act, visit www.fec.gov/hava/hava.htm. For more information on the Catskill Center for Independence, visit www.ccfi.us/.
To reach reporter Francesca Olsen call 518-828-1616, ext. 2272, or e-mail folsen@registerstar.com. To comment directly on this story, visit www.registerstar.com.
Project HAVA, run by The Catskill Center for Independence, based in Oneonta, is funded by a grant from the New York State Commission on Quality Care and Advocacy for Persons with Disabilities. The project aims to give technical assistance and training to boards of election in the 52 counties above Westchester County in New York, as well as monitor HAVA implementation in poll sites across the state.
Helen Benlisa, the Catskill Center’s HAVA Coordinator, and Don Wyckoff, a consultant on architectural barriers, have visited half of the county’s polling places so far and have found none of them to be fully compliant with HAVA or ADA.
“Nobody understands truly what ‘accessible’ means,” said Wyckoff. “What we’re trying to do is make sure that people know what the definition is.”
There is a lengthy ADA checklist for polling places, specifying accessibility requirements for the inside and outside of polling places. Wyckoff and Benlisa check for clearly marked parking that meets space requirements, proper signage, door hardware, signage indicating the route for disabled access to an accessible polling area, height of ground and floor surfaces, how much force is needed to pull a door open, door width, changes in elevation, and more. They have checked close to 200 poll sites so far.
The idea of “usable” versus “accessible” is a general theme. “It’s not nitpicking,” said Wychoff. “It has to meet HAVA standards.” Signage marking parking areas for the disabled must be between 5 and 7 feet off the ground. Curbs cut over a half inch from the ground are technically considered inaccessible. Doors must have a level landing, rugs can’t be loose, and doors must be wide enough for a wheelchair to get through, and light enough to be opened by a light grip.
A poll site in Mellenville, for example, has no marked disabled parking, and the rocky gravel that makes up the building’s driveway is tough ground for a wheelchair to cover. A poll site at Philmont Village Hall has a ramp to accommodate wheelchairs, but the rail is two inches shorter than the ADA requires.
Because of the way the ramp is built, someone in a wheelchair would have to balance on a slight slope on the ramp in order to position themselves in a way where they could reach and use the door handle to open the door. Multitasking in a wheelchair, Wyckoff said, is difficult, and such positioning might result in the chair rolling backward, making for a frustrating and potentially dangerous scenario.
The poll site at the A.B. Shaw Fire Company building in Claverack has similar deficiencies. No disabled parking is marked, and a door at the bottom of the building that meets width requirements opens into a sharp slope that would send a wheelchair straight into a second door that must be opened to enter the building. The poll site at 401 State Street in Hudson is deficient, Wyckoff and Benlisa demonstrated, because of a curb that is cut too high and inconsistencies in the elevation of pavement laid outside the building.
Wyckoff and Benlisa said that when they inspect poll sites, they often are told by election workers that the door to a building is propped open for election day, or that the sites are compliant, or that disabled voters in their community use absentee ballots and do not come to polling places to vote. “Part of this process is changing a mindset,” said Benlisa.
“The whole point is for people to be able to access their polling site independently,” said Benlisa. “Even within the disabled community, there’s a lot of discrepancy -- there are a lot of people who say, ‘it’s usable. That’s good enough.’”
Attempts to comply with ADA requirements are a good start, said Wyckoff, but it can’t end there. For instance, cones must mark off parking spaces as disabled parking and drop off zones, even as temporary solutions for election day (the ADA checklist requires that three standard parking spaces be marked off as a drop off zone).
“They might be helpful, but if they’re not set up properly, then what’s the point of having them?” Wyckoff asked.
A general lack of knowledge of the legal definition of “accessibility”, Benlisa and Wyckoff agreed, was at least partially responsible for the general lack of compliance. “We’re not an authority in the sense that we can legally say, ‘you have to make it accessible’, but they do. It’s the law,” said Benlisa. “We don’t have the right to decide how somebody votes. It’s their job to make voting accessible. Period. End of story.”
“We see a lot of good faith efforts,” said Wyckoff. “People really are generally caring, but there’s no oversight whatsoever.”
In 2007, a survey done by the Independent Living Center of the Hudson Valley of all poll sites in Columbia County found most of the sites to be in compliance. “We have a narrative for each poll site,” said Virginia Martin, Democratic commissioner of elections for Columbia County. “Either it was compliant, or it needs a lot of things, or a few things.”
“I certainly believe the findings they found were accurate,” said Donald Kline, Republican commissioner of elections for Columbia County. Kline said that the majority of poll sites studied by the Independent Living Center of the Hudson Valley identified a lack of markings directing disabled voters to access points. “We did order all the materials that were recommended so that we could comply,” he said.
In Columbia County, around $20,000 in HAVA funds have provided for materials for improvements to each of the county’s 42 poll sites.
“(The Catskill Center) may be absolutely right that some of the poll sites don’t meet their standards,” said Martin. “That’s why we have started all these new part time positions. That’s also why we are hiring 22 poll site specialists. One of the key responsibilities are to make sure the poll sites are ADA compliant.”
In anticipation of the election season, the county Board of Elections has decided to hire two HAVA specialists, to be trained in the county, as well as 22 poll site specialists. They will travel from poll site to poll site helping election workers become aware of HAVA requirements and familiarize them with how to use ballot marking devices.
“This is something that needs to be looked at very carefully,” said Martin. “We’re very concerned about it. It’s at the top of our agenda right now.”
The BOE has also entered into a contract with disabled voter advocate Susan Cohen of Voting Access Solutions for a training and sensitivity program designed for county election workers. The cost was $16,500, also from HAVA funding.
“We’re going to be working in conjunction with the independent living centers and organizations for people with disabilities,” Martin said. “We’ll be listening to them, taking their input, and using that to improve each one of our poll sites so that voters with disabilities can come there and vote comfortably.”
For more information on accessibility requirements as outlined by the ADA, visit www.ada.gov/pubs/ada.htm; for more information on HAVA, including the full text of the act, visit www.fec.gov/hava/hava.htm. For more information on the Catskill Center for Independence, visit www.ccfi.us/.
To reach reporter Francesca Olsen call 518-828-1616, ext. 2272, or e-mail folsen@registerstar.com. To comment directly on this story, visit www.registerstar.com.
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