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Disability advocates urge committee to protect mail‑in voting, add disability to S.298 and restore private right of action
Summary
Multiple witnesses from Rev Up Vermont and allied organizations told the Government Operations & Military Affairs Committee that S.298 must explicitly add people with disabilities as a protected class, restore a private right of action, and enshrine protections for mail‑in voting; they recounted barriers disabled Vermonters face and asked the committee to avoid regressive changes.
Maria Rinaldi of Rev Up Vermont and the American Association of People with Disabilities' Vermont chapter told the committee Friday that current systems and rhetoric at the federal level threaten the voting access that many disabled Vermonters rely on. "S.298 must be Vermont's firewall," Rinaldi said, urging the committee to restore a private right of action, codify universal mail‑in ballots and explicitly add disability to the bill's protected classes so protections do not depend on federal law.
Alicia Weiss, chair of Plainfield's accessibility advisory committee and a member of Rev Up Vermont's leadership team, told the…
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