The Washington Post

Disabled Voters Sue to Force D.C. Changes

By Bill Miller
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, September 6, 2001; Page B04

Five disabled D.C. voters and two advocacy groups filed a federal lawsuit
yesterday demanding that the District buy voting machines that can be
used by
people who are blind or otherwise disabled, saying they want improvements
by next year's D.C. elections.

The suit also seeks a court order to force the D.C. government to make
all polling places accessible to people who use wheelchairs or who cannot
climb stairs.
According to the groups, 23 of the District's 140 polling places have
stairs or other obstacles.

The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court by the American Association
of People With Disabilities, the Disability Rights Council of Greater
Washington
and five voters. Four of the voters are legally blind; the other is a
quadriplegic. All complained that they can vote only with the assistance
of relatives,
friends or polling place workers, which deprives them of the right to
cast secret ballots.

"Voting is a very intimate act," said plaintiff Jim Dickson, 55, of
Northwest, who is legally blind. "It's full of emotion. I think most
people just don't
realize the harm that is done by the lack of privacy."

Dickson, who is vice president of the American Association of People With
Disabilities, said similar lawsuits probably will be filed soon against
other
cities and states. One case is pending against Philadelphia. Advocates
are pushing hard, he said, because many jurisdictions are modernizing
voting equipment
after widespread problems with last year's presidential election.

The case in the District was crafted by the Washington Lawyers' Committee
for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs and attorneys with the law firm of
Hogan &
Hartson. The suit alleges that the D.C. government and its Board of
Elections and Ethics are violating the Americans With Disabilities Act
and the constitutional
rights of the disabled.

Bill O'Field, an elections board spokesman, declined to comment on the
suit, saying that officials had not had an opportunity to review it.

"Generally, the board shares their concerns," O'Field said of the
plaintiffs.

D.C. elections officials are in the process of replacing their punch-card
system with an optical-scan ballot system. The 160 new machines cost
about $1
million and mark the first advance in D.C. voting technology since 1979.
Voters will place marks with No. 2 pencils beside candidates or ballot
issues,
then feed the paper ballots into an optical scanner. Officials have said
they expect errors and tabulation time to decrease.

The lawsuit says the new system is not designed to accommodate thousands
of people with visual or manual impairments, including voters who cannot
manipulate
pencils. The suit contends that D.C. officials rejected several systems
that use voice prompts, headphones, remote switches or other devices.

"Using such systems, voters can complete, verify, and cast their ballots
in secret, without the assistance of a third party," the lawsuit said.

Most of the nation's attention last year focused on the punch-card voting
system and troubles in Florida, but Dickson said disabled voters faced
other obstacles
that discouraged them from even going to polling places. One survey
estimated that 21 million disabled Americans did not vote, he said,
adding that he
believed inaccessible polling places and voting systems deterred many of
those voters.