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State of New Jersey
Department of the Public Advocate
240 West State St.
P.O. Box 851
Trenton, NJ 08625-0851
Phone: (609) 826-5090
Fax: (609) 984-4747

JON S. CORZINE
Governor

For Immediate Release:
September 27, 2007
RONALD K. CHEN
Public Advocate

Contact: Kathy Bird
609-826-5054
609-273-7750(cell)

County Election Boards Certify Poll Accessibility, Despite Persistent Barriers

A Public Advocate spot inspection of polling places across the state found that only one out of five, or 20 percent, met the legal requirements for disability access required by federal law. Of the 121 polling sites inspected, only two had been declared deficient in mandatory certifications county boards of elections submitted to state elections overseers.

This persistent problem makes it more difficult for people with disabilities to exercise their right to vote, said Public Advocate Ronald Chen.

“Fifteen years after federal laws went into effect requiring that the state’s approximately 3,500 polling places be made accessible to the handicapped and elderly, our most-recent inspections found that far too many sites remain inaccessible to people with disabilities, while the oversight mechanisms intended to detect and fix these problems are failing,” Chen said.

“With the November elections less than two months away, it is time for the county boards of election to fix these problems,” Chen added.

On June 5, the Public Advocate sent teams of inspectors to 121 sites in nine of New Jersey’s 21 counties. The inspections found:

• Only 24 polling places, or 20 percent of the inspected sites fully complied with the legal requirements for accessibility, meaning they had ramps, doorways wide enough to accommodate a wheelchair, accessible parking, signs and other aids to ensure people with disabilities can reach the polls.
• 59 percent had a physical barrier that impeded access to the polling areas, such as narrow doorways or steps without a ramp.
• 21 percent posed no physical barrier but failed to post required signs, offer accessible parking or meet other requirements of the federal and state accessibility laws.

Chen noted that while the sample is not intended to be statistically significant, the results still are cause for grave concern. Some of the sites chosen for inspection had failed one or more previous inspections. Others were chosen because they were reflective of the typical polling sites in the area, such as a firehouse.

The fact that many of these sites failed the Public Advocate’s inspection yet still earned a passing grade from the Voting Accessibility Advisory Committees (VAACs), is an alarming disparity, said Chen. The committees are county-level boards charged with inspecting sites and ensuring accessibility.

“Moreover, even where inspectors from county advisory groups – which include the four county Board of Elections members in each of the jurisdictions -- identified accessibility problems, six of the nine county boards of elections disregarded these problems and certified that every single one of their respective facilities was accessible,” the report said. Of the three other counties, one promised compliance by November 2007; one took the positive step of relocating two inaccessible polling places; and the Public Advocate did not receive complete documentation from the other.

“It is especially disturbing to see that polling sites that clearly violate the law still received a passing grade from the county board,” Chen said.

Approximately 300,000 of New Jersey’s voting-age residents use wheelchairs or other aids to move about, including canes, crutches or walkers. More than 1 million of the state’s residents are senior citizens who would benefit from improvements that make polling places easier to enter.

“Voting is the foundation of our democracy and a fundamental right of every American. Every citizen should be concerned when any group or individual is denied the opportunity to exercise his or her voting right privately and independently,” Chen said. “It’s simply unacceptable that while 15 years have elapsed, poor design and physical obstacles like flights of stairs or narrow doorways still create barriers.”

The Public Advocate made the following key recommendations:

• County VAACs should use a new checklist that will more accurately describe the violations at a polling place and serve as a more useful mechanism to address those problems.
• County Boards of Elections should either fix the accessibility problems at their polling places or, if that is not possible, relocate polling sites, and they obviously should not certify as compliant sites that violate state or federal laws.
• The Office of the Attorney General should inspect suspect polling places, conduct surprise, random inspections and follow up to ensure polling places with violations remedy those problems in time for election day.
• Poll workers should complete the Polling Place Accessibility Checklist on Election Day so the Attorney General’s office can assess whether each site was actually accessible.

Read the full report.

Four counties’comments and the Public Advocate’s responses.