Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Disability advocates: large share of D.C. vote centers and drop boxes inaccessible; Board of Elections acknowledges problems
Summary
At a Feb. 19 oversight hearing, Disability Rights DC told the D.C. Council committee that its 2024 surveys found dozens of vote centers and ballot drop boxes were either structurally or operationally inaccessible — and urged the Board of Elections to relocate structurally inaccessible sites and fix operational barriers before the 2026 election cycle.
At a Feb. 19 performance oversight hearing of the Committee on Executive Administration and Labor, Disability Rights DC (DRDC) told the committee that its 2024 surveys of the District’s voting sites documented dozens of structural and operational barriers that can prevent voters with disabilities from using vote centers or ballot drop boxes.
DRDC’s managing attorney Lindsay Niles told the committee she and her colleagues surveyed “100% of the district's vote centers during the June 2024 primary election and 97.33% of vote centers during the November 2024 general election.” She said the group’s findings included: “during the June 2024 primary election, 10.67 percent of all vote centers were structurally inaccessible,” and DRDC’s preliminary findings for November showed 61.64% (45 of 73) of vote centers surveyed were inaccessible in some way. Niles also raised concerns about ballot drop boxes, saying DRDC found seven drop boxes “structurally inaccessible” in the 2024 general election and several more that were operationally inaccessible because of obstructions or unstable paths.
“Powell Eleme…
Already have an account? Log in
Subscribe to keep reading
Unlock the rest of this article — and every article on Citizen Portal.
- Unlimited articles
- AI-powered breakdowns of topics, speakers, decisions, and budgets
- Instant alerts when your location has a new meeting
- Follow topics and more locations
- 1,000 AI Insights / month, plus AI Chat
