March 29, 2024
Dear County Clerk,
The National Federation of the Blind seeks to safeguard all means of voting rights for blind and low-vision voters. It is vital to our democracy that all citizens are able to exercise the right to cast a ballot both privately and independently. Unfortunately, this concept is forgotten when blind and low-vision voters want to vote using absentee ballots. Blind and low-vision voters continue to be denied the opportunity to vote privately and independently due to the implementation of inaccessible paper-based systems that require them to depend on others to assist them in the ballot-marking process. In advance of the 2024 elections, I am writing to remind you of your obligation, as required by federal law and recent court decisions, to provide blind voters an accessible way to privately and independently mark an absentee ballot.
Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires jurisdictions to ensure that voters with disabilities are offered an opportunity to vote—whether in person or by absentee ballot—that is equal to the opportunity offered to voters without disabilities. Thus, if nondisabled voters are able to vote absentee privately and independently, voters with disabilities must be offered the same opportunity.
The law on this issue is clear. In a recent case brought by the National Federation of the Blind of Texas, the Coalition of Texans with Disabilities and three blind voters, against the Elections Administrator of Bexar County, Texas, the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas San Antonio Division held that Bexar County violated Title II of the ADA by providing only a paper absentee ballot that was inaccessible to blind people. Johnson v. Callanen, Case No. SA-22-CV-00409-XR, 2023 WL 4374998. The Court ordered the County to provide a remote accessible vote-by-mail (RAVBM) system that would grant blind voters the same opportunity provided to voters without disabilities to mark their absentee ballot independently. RAVBMs allow voters to mark an electronic version of the absentee ballot on devices such as computers, tablets, or smartphones, then to print and return the ballot on paper.
Currently, there are numerous RAVBM systems available for use in elections. Given the requirements of the ADA, as well as the wide availability of accessible ballot marking systems, we strongly encourage you to implement such a system for use in the 2024 elections, and all subsequent federal, state, and local elections in which absentee voting is available. The National Federation of the Blind will be monitoring the availability of accessible absentee voting through our 2024 national blind voter survey, and subsequent surveys following each presidential general election.
Voters with disabilities must be considered as you design and plan your absentee voting process. Providing a RAVBM system will guarantee that people with disabilities have an opportunity to cast their absentee ballots privately and independently that is equal to the opportunity provided to voters without disabilities, as required by the ADA and the Rehabilitation Act. The National Federation of the Blind is available as you consider the accessibility of your current absentee voting system. If needed we are available to advise you on the development, or in the procurement, of a RAVBM system.
Please do not hesitate to contact us with questions, or if you need assistance with the implementation of accessible absentee voting.
Sincerely,
Mark A. Riccobono, President
National Federation of the Blind