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AAPD leader highlights RevUp training, DOJ guidance on accessible voting
Summary
Maria Town, CEO of the American Association of People with Disabilities, told HTV’s Focus on Abilities that AAPD’s RevUp program trained students at Houston Community College’s VAST Academy to serve as poll workers and helped prompt recent Department of Justice guidance clarifying polling-place obligations under the ADA and other federal laws.
Maria Town, CEO of the American Association of People with Disabilities, said on HTV’s Focus on Abilities that AAPD’s RevUp program used an Election Assistance Commission grant to train students at Houston Community College’s VAST Academy to serve as paid poll workers and test accessible voting equipment.
Town said RevUp — short for “register, educate, vote, use your power” — recruited and trained students with intellectual disabilities, helped them test accessible voting systems and sign up with the Harris County Office of Elections to work the polls, where pay can be about $17 an hour. “These students had been told throughout their lives, ‘you don’t need to vote,’” Town said. “They all got trained on being an election worker.”
The training program and nationwide advocacy by AAPD and RevUp also contributed to fresh guidance from the U.S. Department of Justice on accessible voting, Town said. The…
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