Community Legal Aid Society Delaware Report finds accessibility issues at Delaware polling locations

DELAWARE – The Delaware Community Legal Aid Society has released a report that finds accessibility violations for those with disabilities at voting centers across the state.

The statewide report found issues with parking, accessible entrances, and poll worker training across all 3 Delaware counties.

Project Director at the CLASI Disabilities Law Program Laura Waterland tells us in Sussex County violations included failure to use disability entrances, lack of temporary parking near the location, and multiple locations that had parking across a road from the locations.

Additionally, she tells us the report found that disability accommodations built into voting machines were not being highlighted by poll workers.

“We were really disturbed, when we attended the Sussex County poll worker training session, and poll workers were encouraged to get people with disabilities to not use accessible equipment but instead to bring someone with them, which you can do as part of Delaware State law but people often want to have that privacy and that was not being communicated,” Waterland said.

Waterland tells 47ABC the group is raising the concerns ahead of school board elections later this week.

She tells us that easy fixes for the violations include creating more temporary disabled parking in locations and better access to buildings by utilizing disability-friendly entrances where many of the polling locations already exist.

She tells us the group receives federal funding to monitor compliance issues as part of the federal Help American’s Vote Act of 2002.

47ABC reached out to the Sussex County Board of Elections and did not receive a response.

School Board elections are set for May 9th.