Delaware poll accessibility improved for voters with disabilities in 2024

Emmanuel Jenkins drove past a dimly lit school on Election Day in November. His assigned polling place, the Woodbridge Early Childhood Education Center in Greenwood, had no signs, few cars and even less people — it was probably closed, he thought.

Jenkins, a community relations officer with the Delaware Developmental Disabilities Council, drove to the nearest polling place, a fire station, where he was told he had to return to the school and drive around the back, toward the gymnasium, where voting was taking place. 

There were no signs directing people to the gymnasium and, if there were, people living with low vision would have difficulties finding the polls, he added. It would be difficult for a voter with limited mobility to find and travel to the gymnasium if paratransit dropped them off in the front of the building, Jenkins said. 

“Voting should be at least the one thing that we have no barriers to,” said Jenkins, who lives with cerebral palsy. “It is our right; it is our responsibility, and if we cannot exercise, are we really part of the United States of America?”

About one in four adults in Delaware live with a disability and physical or environmental barriers at polling places are encroaching on their most fundamental civil right — voting. Physical barriers around parking, entrances and exterior pathways may discourage people living with disabilities from exercising their right to privately vote in person, according to advocates.

In 2024, some voters with disabilities reported improvements in accessibility at polling places compared to past elections, but accessibility issues still persist.

Nationwide, among in-person voters in 2022, the rate of difficulties was over three times higher among people with disabilities than those without disabilities, according to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission 2022 Disability and Voting Accessibility Survey.

About 20% of in-person voters with disabilities reported difficulties, compared to 6% of voters without disabilities, the survey found.

During the 2024 elections, the Community Legal Aid Society Inc. (CLASI) continued its years-long effort to survey polling places to ensure they’re accessible to Delawareans living with disabilities.

Monitors from CLASI surveyed over 90% of all polling locations statewide and over 93% in Kent and Sussex counties, covering 258 locations overall, according to Joann Kingsley, a voting rights advocate with CLASI’s Disabilities Law Program.

While the final survey results have not been published, the organization is “pleased that preliminary figures suggest improvements in accessibility,” she added. 

John Nanni, who is living with post-polio syndrome and uses a wheelchair, had a “great” experience voting in the 2024 election compared to 2020. On Election Day 2020, a line of voters wrapped around the Crossroads Presbyterian Church in Middletown, Nanni’s assigned voting place.

Poll workers didn’t pull elderly folks or people living with disabilities out of line to avoid the wait then. But in 2024, workers pulled people living with disabilities out of the long lines and had them enter the building to vote first.

“I know they don’t do that in a lot of places, but they did at this polling center, which was great,” Nanni said.

By law, all voting places must be accessible to people with disabilities. All voting places are equipped with a Universal Voting Console, a headset and audio-tactile ballot handheld device that allows voters with low vision and others with disabilities to vote unassisted.

As a result of CLASI’s 2022 report, the DOE removed 11 locations due to accessibility issues for the 2024 election, according to Cathleen Hartsky-Carter, community relations officer with the Delaware Department of Elections.

Seven locations were removed in Sussex County and four were removed in New Castle County. Polling places are removed from the list if appropriate accessibility changes cannot be made and new locations are added.

Polling places are open to making accessibility adjustments, but the buildings often don’t have the needed funding to make the facilities accessible on a regular basis outside of Election Day, Hartsky-Carter added.

Accessibility monitored across Delaware

Joann Kingsley looked down at her phone as the screen lit up her face amid the November election night. She looked up and counted the blue accessible parking spaces at the First Baptist Church of Milford, a bustling polling place she was monitoring for compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

Her eyes darted around the parking lot as she rapidly read out criteria for which she was looking.

There was no significant slope, potholes or identifiable cracks in the lot — good. There were over a dozen handicapped parking spaces near the entrance, but they were not identified by vertical signs — not good.

Kingsley would later find that the church entryway wasn’t wide enough for a wheelchair to fit through without both doors needing to be held open.

Monitors survey parking entrances, accessible parking spaces, exterior pathways, building entrances and the interior voting area for ADA compliance. They then enter their findings into an online survey tool.

CLASI compiles its findings and presents them to the DOE in order to improve voting accessibility for future elections.

Signage was a widespread issue at Delaware polls during the 2022 election, especially for directing voters with disabilities to accessible parking, routes and entrances, according to CLASI’s 2022 report.

Monitors found polling locations without any directional signs, while others had signs pointing voters in the wrong or opposite directions, the report found. Additionally, nearly a third of monitored locations in 2022 had inaccessible parking issues.

“It is not OK for people to just find a reason not to make change,” Emmanuel Jenkins said. “Voting with barriers will discourage people, and already does.”

Nancy Lemus was impressed by the accessibility capability of her son’s polling place. 

Lemus, a member of the Delaware Developmental Disabilities Council, accompanied her 19-year-old son, Christopher Garcia, who is living with disabilities, to vote for the first time during the 2024 election.

She didn’t expect the New Castle polling place to have accessible equipment that would help her son be able to make his selections on the voting screen. She went into the polling place to ask if they had the needed accessibility control before she took her son out of the car.

“I was surprised, I was impressed,” Lemus said. “I went in there with expectations that they wouldn’t have it.”

Lemus said she hoped the accessibility control would be made available at local libraries for people with disabilities to become familiarized with technology before elections.