GPA Photo Archive; CC BY-NC 2.0
As the U.S. prepares for the November 2022 midterm elections, DREDF wants to ensure that all voters including disabled voters are aware of their voting rights.
Accessible Voting, a new tool by the Center for Civic Design, provides state-by-state voting rights information for voters with disabilities. The California page includes information about:
- the right to vote privately and independently, at an accessible polling place, using an accessible polling place
- the right to ask for assistance or reasonable accommodations
- early voting in person
- voting by mail
- accessible voting by mail through “Remote Accessible Vote-By-Mail” – which allows you to use technology to electronically mark a digital ballot
- voting in person on Election Day
Every California voter now receives vote-by-mail ballots automatically, including for the upcoming November 2022 midterm elections.
Where’s My Ballot is an accessible website maintained by the Secretary of State that allows vote-by-mail voters to track their ballot through the mail and as it is processed by the county elections official.
Background.
Both the U.S. Congress and the California Legislature have enacted legislation to make elections more accessible to all voters, including seniors and persons with disabilities. The National Voter Registration Act of 1993, often known as the Motor Voter Law, has helped millions of people register to vote or update their voter information during a driver license or ID card transaction involving a state department of motor vehicles. California subsequently enacted the California New Motor Voter Act. Under this law, which took effect in 2017, the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) electronically transmits information about DMV customers who are eligible to vote to the California Secretary of State, which adds eligible voters to the rolls unless they opt out.
Newer laws prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic expanded vote-by-mail options. During the first year of the pandemic, California enacted a law which required county elections offices to mail a ballot to every registered active voter for the November 2020 statewide general election. California subsequently made the ballot-by-mail provisions permanent.