A movement to expand the range of options for people with disabilities won another victory last month when Virginia officials agreed to make permanent postal ballot papers that can be electronically flagged for voters with visual impairments available starting with the June primary.
Steven Hollman, partner at Sheppard Mullin, supported efforts to expand choice for people with disabilities in Virginia and West Virginia.
The legal win was also the most recent triumph for Steven Hollman, an associate of Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP and former co-chair of the Washington Civil Rights and Urban Affairs Advisory Board who has handled several pro bono cases related to polls and polls Disability rights during his career.
The overlap of these issues came to the fore last year when states in the United States began easing postal voting restrictions due to the coronavirus pandemic. But efforts have failed to remove some of the other barriers that millions of U.S. voters with disabilities face when it comes to voting absent, proponents have said.
“Just sending e-mail votes was not the answer for people with disabilities as some cannot vote with a paper ballot,” Hollman said in an interview with Law360.
In Virginia, five disabled citizens and advocacy groups sued the Electoral Department in July for failing to expand its non-apologetic absence options beyond a paper ballot, making it impossible for people with visual impairments to vote for unaided absence. Groups represented by Hollman and others said the voting limits violated the Disabled Americans Act and the Virginia Disability Act by denying voters the right to vote privately and independently.
State election representatives then agreed to offer print-disabled voters – people who are blind or otherwise unable to access standard printed matter – postal ballot papers that could be electronically received and tagged using screen reader assistive technology during the 2020 elections. At the beginning of this year, the legislature went one step further and passed a new voting rights law that makes the postal voting option permanent.
On April 15, US District Judge Claude Hilton announced a final assent decree in which the state agreed to make such an option available for the June 8 state primaries. Under the agreement, Virginia will also appoint an ombudsman to assist voters with disabilities in applying for and flagging electronic ballots.
It is unclear how many voters the law will affect. In 2016, more than 178,000 adults in Virginia had a visual impairment, according to a demographic survey by the US Census Bureau.
Hollman served as an attorney for the plaintiffs on the Washington Lawyers’ Committee, the Disability Law Center in Virginia, and Brown Goldstein & Levy. He said his engagement was part of a wider effort to expand choice for people with disabilities in states across the country.
Just months prior to legal action in Virginia, West Virginia lawmakers extended electronic postal voting options to all voters with disabilities after Hollman and the right-wing groups succeeded in acting.
The National Federation of the Blind told Law360 that it had advanced reforms in more than 10 states, including Virginia, Michigan and Pennsylvania, in court.
For Hollman, interest in disability rights is rooted in some of his previous experiences as a student and a lawyer. He worked for former Senator Charles Mathias, R-Md., As an undergraduate student when Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act was drafted – a law that prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities in programs that receive federal aid. He also helped represent a disabled Maryland woman who sued a mall in the early 2000s after she was trapped during an emergency evacuation.
“The question of how people with disabilities can enjoy the same opportunities as other citizens in our community became very important to me,” said Hollman, whose corporate practice is focused on intellectual property.
According to a September report by Rutgers University’s Disability Research Program, around 38 million eligible American voters had a disability in the November election, representing 16% of the electorate. About 7 million of those voters were visually impaired, the report said.
Proponents have found that reading postal ballot papers in standard print and writing or filling out entries is a significant barrier for people with visual impairments. Plaintiffs in the Virginia case argued that failure to offer alternatives violated the precedent set against Lamone in the Fourth Circle of the National Federation of the Blind. The 2016 ruling found Maryland was required under the ADA to provide reasonable accommodation to voters with disabilities who wished to vote in absentia.
25 states nationwide sent electronic ballots to voters with print disabilities during the 2020 elections, according to the NFB.
“The recent health pandemic has shown the importance of ensuring that voters with pressure disabilities can independently cast a remote vote. This is an option that any other voter can exercise,” said Sam Joehl, president of the American Council of the Blind of Virginia in an opinion.
The recent health pandemic has shown the importance of enabling voters with pressure disabilities to cast a remote vote independently of one another. This is an option that any other voter can exercise.
Sam Joehl
American Council of
the blind man of Virginia
However, expanding options is only part of the battle, Hollman said. Local governments are still unable to provide adequate information to voters and “the burden of actually receiving an electronic ballot when it is legally made available is still too high.”
Separate studies of the election committee websites and the 2020 email voting application forms found that many states did not make these materials fully accessible to people with disabilities. A report by the nonprofit Miami Lighthouse for the Blind found that the websites of the Board of Elections in 12 battlefield states were not fully accessible to the visually impaired.
“The barriers for people with pressure disabilities are very great and it takes a lot of energy to make known that a system is available and to bring them to a level of comfort at which they can access this available system to vote. ” “Said Hollman.” The universe of potential is phenomenal here, but we need to reach out to these people. “
The April approving decree called for election officials in Virginia to take “reasonable steps” to inform the public and county registrars of the ability for pressure-disabled voters to “receive and mark postal ballots using screen readers.”
The ballot papers still have to be returned by post. According to the NFB, only five countries allowed electronic returns in 2020.
Electronic mail voting options have been proven to be safe and effective, Hollman said, pointing to states – including Virginia and West Virginia – that already offered them to overseas military personnel. There is another group of voters who can benefit from such a system, he said.
“It’s sad to me that our national dialogue seems to be leading us in the opposite direction, limiting people’s choice at a time when we have the technology and the ability to expand the franchise,” said he.
– Adaptation by Aaron Pelc.
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