Thursday, April 19, 2001
Suit says polling places not geared to handicapped
By Joseph A. Slobodzian
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
A national disabilities rights group today sued the
Philadelphia city and election officials for failing to make
more than a fraction of polling places accessible to people
who are blind or who use wheelchairs.
The National Organization on Disability filed suit in federal
court in Philadelphia on behalf of nine disabled registered
voters who contend the city's policies for locating polling
places violates the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990.
Joining in the suit with the Washington, D.C.-based group are
Liberty Resources Inc., a city-based disabilities rights
organization, the Pennsylvania Council of the Blind and the
National Federation of the Blind of Pennsylvania.
The lawsuit contends that only 46 of 1,681 polling places in
the city are accessible to people who use wheelchairs and
none are equipped with audio devices that announce the ballot
choices to people who are blind.
Moreover, the suit continues, when the city in October 1999
asked for bids to provide about $19.3 million worth of new
electronic voting machines their proposal never asked or
required bidders to include the audio technology.
Edward V. Schulgen, a deputy city commissioner, said city
election officials have been trying to improve the
accessibility of polling places but have been hindered by a
lack of wheelchair-accessible sites in each of the city's 681
voting divisions.
"We can't force anyone to take on a polling place," Schulgen
said.
Schulgen said the use of audio systems for blind voters would
require legislative change to the Pennsylvania election code
because it would mean a different type of ballot.
"In some ways we are really just hamstrung by the election
code," Schulgen added.
Thomas H. Earle, an attorney with the Disabilities Law
Project in Philadelphia, who is one of lawyers involved in
the suit, called Schulgen's response "a bunch of bunk."
"The ADA has been around for 10 years," Earle said. "If they
had 1,200 polling places that were accessible, I don't think
you would see any disabled people complaining or filing suit.
But 46? They're nowhere near an acceptable number."
The lawsuit seeks a court order prohibiting the city from
leasing any more polling places that are not accessible to
people in wheelchairs, or from buying any new voting machines
that are not equipped with audio technology for blind
voters."
Although disabled voters may vote by absentee ballot, Earle
said that is not an acceptable alternative to accessible
polling places.
"They want to participate in the electoral process just like
their neighbors," Earle added. "They want to go to their
local polling place and cast their ballot independently . . .
I can't imagine any other minority group being told they have
to accept absentee ballots as an acceptable alternative to
voting in person."
Joseph A. Slobodzian's e-mail address is
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