Polling places adapting to disabled voters

Important steps have been taken to make Utah's polls more accessible to disabled voters since an earlier review revealed serious problems across the state, officials and advocates said Tuesday.

In a 2004 survey, the Disability Law Center identified problems in 370 of the state's 392 polling locations, meaning that just 5.6 percent were fully accessible to people with disabilities.

The Disability Law Center has identified 150,000 people with disabilities who could have voted, but didn't, in 2000.

"This is a very large voting block and, unfortunately, it's been a very disenfranchised block," executive director Fraser Nelson said.

It's unclear how many of the problems remained as of Tuesday's primary election, but Nelson praised the collaboration between the center, county clerks and the governor's office in addressing the problem.

Lt. Gov. Gary Herbert promised Tuesday that the problems of the past are fast being diminished.

In Salt Lake County, employees of the clerk's office have spent a total of 400 hours visiting each of the county's polling locations to determine what changes are needed to make them accessible to disabled voters, Salt Lake County Clerk Sherrie Swensen said.

"We are dedicated to the fact that we are going to bring these polling locations up to the standards that people with disabilities deserve," Swensen said.

The Help America Vote Act of 2002 requires all polling locations to be accessible by the 2006 general election.

Maree Webb, who has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair, said access to polling locations has been a deterrent to voting in recent years. Even something as seemingly minor as a 2-inch lip on a curb can keep her from casting a ballot on election day, she said.

"We make major contributions to our communities, to our country," Webb said. "We should be able to vote on any issues put out to the public if we so choose."

Many of the problems identified in the 2004 survey were simple fixes, from re-striping a parking lot to moving a rubber mat from a doorway. Others will require more in-depth attention, such as the retrofitting of older buildings or moving polling locations altogether.

Swensen has identified eight places that will need to be relocated because of the seriousness of the problems. Locations in the Avenues present a particular challenge, she said, because of the steep slopes and grades around many buildings.

The 2004 survey addressed only the physical aspects of each polling location, but Herbert said Tuesday that new electronic voting machines are allowing sight-impaired voters to cast their ballot privately and independently for the first time.