Inaccessible polling sites

To the Editor: Our country has a checkered history of preaching democracy and equality, while simultaneously practicing voter discrimination against targeted constituencies. Elected officials have achieved these ends by routinely creating barriers to the voting process, which has effectively excluded and disenfranchised individuals from exercising what is the most fundamental right afforded to an American citizen. To this day, New Yorkers with disabilities still face significant barriers to access voting machines, the ballot, and polling places, as well as in their treatment by polling place workers. Elected officials have allowed the situation to persist and have done little to enforce the law. At the election held on Tuesday, Nov. 8, Independent Living received three more complaints regarding polling sites in Orange County: (1) one site had very heavy front doors and were difficult to open, even for a person without a disability; (2) another site was located at a school under construction, with brand new sidewalks with no curb-cuts, and no accessible parking or entrance; and (3) one site had blocked curb-cut entrances to the site, no access aisles for a van with a lift, and very steep ramps impossible to navigate. Election year 2005 was a pivotal year. Our state leaders currently find themselves at a moment in time when they must ask themselves whether to continue to ignore implementation of anti-discrimination statutes and the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) Law, and allow voting barriers to persist for New Yorkers with disabilities. Or will leadership emerge to guarantee that all citizens of this state have full access to vote privately and independently? Susan Stockburger Independent Living Newburgh