IN THE NEWS-HOW VOTERS WITH DISABILITIES ARE BLOCKED FROM THE BALLOT BOX- PART 1

Part 1 of an important item from Stateline...

For decades, Kathy Hoell struggled to vote. Poll workers have told the 62-year-old Nebraska native, who uses a powered wheelchair and has a brain injury that causes her to speak in a strained and raspy voice, that she isn't smart enough to cast a ballot. They have led her to stairs she couldn't climb and prevented her from using an accessible voting machine because they hadn't powered it on.

:Basically," Hoell said, "I'm a second-class citizen."

The barriers Hoell has faced are not unusual for the more than 35 million voting-age Americans with disabilities.As many jurisdictions return to paper ballots to address cybersecurity concerns- nearly half of Americans now vote on paper ballots, counted digitally or by optical  scanners- such obstacles are likely to get worse.

Many people with disabilities cannot mark paper ballots without assistance, so they rely on special voting machines that are equipped with earphones and other modifications. But the return to paper ballots has made poll workers less comfortable with operating machine-based systems, said Michelle Bishop, a voting rights advocate for the National Disability Rights Network. Under increasing pressure to oversee a smooth, secure election, untrained poll workers have discouraged the use of accessible voting machines, leaving voters with disabilities behind.

It's a constant complaint from voters with disabilities nationwide, Bishop said. In the last election, for example, a voter called her to report that a machine was placed in the corner, turned off,with a flower wreath hung on it.

"The message is: You're not wanted here." bishop said. "We get reports of poll workers discouraging their use. They say, 'I haven't been well trained,' 'It's intimidating to me,' 'We'll set it to the side and get through Election Day.'"

Indeed, according to an October study by the Government Accountability  Office, nearly two-thirds of the 137 polling places inspected on Election Day 2016 had at least one impediment to people with disabilities. In the 2008 presidential election, it was fewer than half. The GAO also reported that state inspections of voting accessibility had fallen nationally over the same time.

Among the infractions: The accessible voting machine wasn't set up and powered on, the earphones weren't functioning, the voting system wasn't wheelchair-accessible, or the voting system didn't provide the same privacy as standard voting stations.

Lack of access to proper voting machines, among several other issues, has led to a decline in participation, according to a survey of voters in the 2016 election by Rutgers University. Voter participation among people with disabilities has gone down over the past two presidential elections- from 57,3 percent in 2008 to 56.8 percent in 2012 and 55.9 percent in 2016.

Among Americans with disabilities, voter participation also dropped between 2008 and 2012- from 64.6 percent, according to the Rutgers survey. But that percentage changed little from 2012 to 2016.

The Rutgers study also notes that many polling places have physical  barriers, such as steep ramps and poor path surfaces, which block people with disabilities from voting. Political parties don't target "get out the vote" efforts to people with disabilities and many of them struggle to find transportation to polling places.

Other factors that contribute to the problem- such as a lack of training for poll workers, limited access to registration materials,  and insufficient resources for election officials- were laid out in September 2016 white paper from the Ruderman Family Foundation, a disability rights advocacy organization.

The proliferation of voter ID laws my compound the problem, since people with disabilities re less likely to drive and to carry a photo ID.

"We're segregating in the way we vote," Bishop said. "Separate is not equal. That's a lesson this country should have already learned by now."

In few places is this gap more visible than in West Virginia- a state with the highest percentage of people with disabilities, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, and one of the worst voter participation rates for people with disabilities.

Just 46 percent of West Virginians with disabilities who were eligible to vote participated in the 2016 election, worse than any other state bt Kentucky, at 42.5 percent, according to the Rutgers researchers. Gina Desmond, an advocate for Disability Rights of West Virginia, said the lack of access has led many people with disabilities to question their role in the democratic process.

"It's surprising how many people don't think they have the right to vote," Desmond said.

 To be continued.....