Public Advocate Launches Second Voting Rights Advocacy

and Education Program

TRENTON, NJ – The New Jersey Department of the Public Advocate again is spearheading a campaign of advocacy and education to protect the voting rights of people with disabilities on Election Day, Public Advocate Ronald K. Chen said today.

The statewide program includes the broad circulation of a letter from Chen informing New Jersey residents with disabilities about their rights.  The letter encourages voters to take the letter to the polls when they go to cast their ballots on Election Day, in case any questions arise at polling places.

The letter comes on the heels of a Public Advocate’s report about problems with the accessibility of polling places, and in anticipation of a Nov. 6 election on a constitutional amendment affecting people with disabilities.

Public Advocate’s Letter Assists Voters

Last year, voters brought the Public Advocate’s letter to the polls and found it helpful in ensuring their rights and ironing out problems. 

Occasionally, voters with disabilities are turned away improperly from polling places but then are successful at county courthouses in getting a Superior Court judge’s order permitting them to cast their ballots on Election Day.  The information in the Public Advocate’s letter to voters can be instrumental in establishing a person’s right to vote in such cases.

“Only a judge can stop a person from voting because of a disability.  The judge must first hear evidence from a doctor or other expert that proves that the person is not able to understand what voting is,” said Chen.

“This does not mean that a person with a disability has to prove that he or she understands how government works or has a good reason for voting a certain way.  No voter, including a voter with a disability, may be asked those types of questions,” he added.

Chen’s two-page letter has been sent to individuals with disabilities, self-advocacy organizations, community-based groups that serve individuals with disabilities, and state-run programs for people with disabilities.

The Public Advocate’s Efforts To Promote Polling Place Accessibility

Chen’s letter also explains that federal and state laws guarantee people with disabilities the right to vote without any encumbrances and that reasonable accommodations must be made at the polls to allow those individuals to cast their ballots.

A recently release Public Advocate spot inspection report of polling places across the state found that only one out of five, or 20 percent, met the legal requirements for disability access.

“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, with the oversight mechanisms intended to detect and fix these problems are failing,” said Chen.

The Public Advocate has called on county election boards to ensure that all problems are corrected in time for the November election.

Public Advocate’s Letter Educates Voters about Historic Ballot Question

This year, the letter also informs voters with disabilities about an important question on the ballot.  Public Question #4 asks New Jersey voters if they want to remove the words “idiot or insane person” from the part of the New Jersey Constitution that establishes who may be denied the right to vote in the state.

“New Jersey voters have a chance to make history if they approve a ballot question that would take out language in our state constitution that many people feel is insulting and offensive to people with disabilities,” Chen said.

If more than half of the voters casting ballots on Public Question #4 indicate “yes,” the constitution will be amended.

“It is important to understand that the ballot question will not change the current law regarding who lacks the legal capacity to vote.  Instead, a ‘yes’ vote will remove the phrase ‘idiot or insane person’ from our constitution and maintain the current, well-established legal standard without using language regarded as offensive,” said Chen.

Historically, voters with disabilities have battled a number of problems at polling places, ranging from polling sites located inside inaccessible buildings to misinformed poll workers who turn away people at polling sites without sufficient legal basis.

Read the 2007 Letter to Voters with Disabilities.

                                                            ###