Suffrage for Americans with disabilities

1. Passed into law in 1984, the Voting Accessibility for the Elderly and Handicapped Act requires polling places to ensure accessibility for all disabled persons during federal elections.[7]

Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990

Other short titles	ADA
Long title	An act to establish a clear and comprehensive prohibition of discrimination on the basis of disability
Acronyms (colloquial)	ADA
Enacted by	the 101st United States Congress
Effective	July 26, 1990

Passed into law in 1990, the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (or ADA) is widely considered to be the first major attempt to define the rights of disabled Americans at a federal level. Signed into law by President George H. W. Bush, the act prohibits discrimination based on disability. The U.S DOJ Civil Rights Division phrases the right to access to the polls, as well as the right to register to vote, in these terms: "(the ADA) safeguards the voting rights of a person with a disability."[8]

Though the ADA is wide-ranging in scope, it has had many lasting effects on the suffrage of disabled Americans. Some of the most prominent changes that resulted from the legislation included calls for accessibility within polling stations. This effort to increase accessibility has led to the establishment of mandatory accessible parking, passenger drop off areas, and building entrances at polling places. [9] However, according to some advocates, the Act itself has not been the "silver bullet" many hoped it would be, and leaves many disabled persons open to ongoing persecution.[10]

Passed into law in 2002, the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) creates "mandatory minimum standards for states to follow in several key areas of election administration."[11] Passing both federal legislatures with bipartisan support, the Act authorized the Secretary of Health and Human Services to make polling places accessible to persons with disabilities. The legislation has a particularly sharp focus on individuals affected by visual impairments, and requires each polling station to have to at least one disability-accessible voting machine per federal election.[11] The Act has three main goals:[11] replace punch-card and lever based voting systems, establish the Election Assistance Commission in order to assist with the administration of federal elections, and establish minimum federal election standards

Critics of the Act claim that it's reach should be expanded to more than solely federal elections. While states receive funding for disability-accessible touchscreen electronic voting machines under HAVA, municipalities such as cities and towns do not directly receive funding. As a result, critics claim that the machines are not evenly distributed.[12]

The National Voter Registration Act of 1993 attempted to increase the historically low registration rates of minorities and persons with disabilities by requiring both federal and state agencies to assist in voter registration procedures.[7]

Passed into law in 1980, the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act protects the rights of persons in jails, publicly operated nursing homes, and institutions for people with psychiatric or developmental disabilities.[7]

Originally passed into law in 1965 to combat racial discrimination at polling places, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 has recently supported advances of disabled suffrage. Section 208 of the Act allows citizens affected by "blindness, disability, or the inability to read or write" to assign an individual to help cast votes within a ballot box.[13] Restrictions on the assignment of said individual include the voter's employer or agent of their union.[13]