People With Disabilities Say New Bills Could Make it Impossible For Them to Vote: 'I'm Being Punished'
Getty A polling place in California
Voters with disabilities say a new spate of GOP-backed laws aimed at tightening voting rules could put their own right to vote at risk, making it a legal requirement that voters hand it their absentee ballots themselves, rather than using drop boxes.
While drop boxes were widely used in the 2020 election (due, in part, to the COVID-19 pandemic), many GOP-led legislatures have made moves to outlaw their use. In Wisconsin, a ban on ballot drop boxes went into effect for local elections in April; the state Supreme Court there is now weighing whether to keep that ban in place.
Those who want to ban ballot drop boxes argue doing so will strengthen the integrity of elections and prevent voter fraud (though extensive research has shown that fraud is very rare). Critics say such measures will simply make it harder to vote, adding hurdles for those who can't easily get to a polling place to vote in person, or don't have the ability to take time off to do so.
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Critics also point to another consequence of making it difficult to send mail-in ballots or use drop boxes: those who can't physically bring their ballot to a clerk, or put an absentee ballot in the mail themselves, would not be able to vote at all.
Martha Chambers, who uses a wheelchair after being paralyzed from a horseback riding injury 27 years ago, described the challenges of voting to NPR.
"I have the ability to put a pen stick in my mouth, so I can fill it in and I can sign the ballot and ask a witness to witness my ballot," Chambers told NPR. "They would have to place the ballot in the envelope and actually put it in the mail or take it to the clerk. It would be difficult for me to put a ballot in my mouth and put it in a mailbox; I couldn't reach that mailbox."
Wisconsin's current statute on voting allows for absentee voting — but it mandates that the envelope containing an absentee ballot "shall be mailed by the elector, or delivered in person, to the municipal clerk issuing the ballot or ballots."
Chambers told NPR that, under that statute, "It would be illegal" for her to fill out a ballot, and have someone else put it in the mailbox for her: "the individual who would assist me would be committing a crime, crazy as that may seem."
She continued: "It's sad because there's a large group of people that just won't do it because they think it's illegal or they're not going to count it, and why bother?"
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Stacy Ellingen, who has athetoid cerebral palsy, told NPR the statute makes her feel as if she is being "punished."
"I do feel like I'm being punished just because I'm physically not able to put a ballot in a mailbox," she told NPR.
"My caregivers help me fill out the ballot and put it in the mailbox. It's literally the only way for me to vote," she continued. "If this stands, I wouldn't be able to vote for the people actually making the decisions that affect my life."
The state's Supreme Court is slated to make a decision on whether to overturn the ban on drop boxes in June, but a similar situation is playing out in other states.
According to a report by the Stanford-MIT Healthy Elections Project, more voters used drop boxes in the 2020 general election than in any other election in American history.
The report notes that, in 2020 and prior, just eight states — Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Montana, New Mexico, Oregon and Washington state — had laws regulating drop boxes.
But in the years since, Republican lawmakers — many spurred by former President Donald Trump's attacks on mail-in voting — have moved to discontinue their use, despite there being no evidence that they lead to voter fraud.
According to research by Stateline, an initiative of The Pew Charitable Trusts, 19 states enacted new voting restrictions in 2021, including limits on early and mail-in voting. Some states (including Arizona and Georgia), have continued to add restrictions in 2022.
Molly Broadway, a training and technical support specialist at nonprofit advocacy agency Disability Rights Texas, told PEW the situation is "unfortunate" but not unforeseen.
"It's unfortunate," Broadway told PEW. "But when you are a community that has to fight for every single advancement of your public and private existence, continuing to fight is not a new thing. It's part of who you are. To move forward is just part of our second nature."
