Recently, the U.S. Election Assistance Commission secured over $380 million in grants to improve election accessibility and security following the 2016 election. These grants were provided under Section 101 of the Help America Vote Act (HAVA), which explicitly talks about using funds to make voting more accessible. You can find your state’s grant amount at the Election Assistance Commission website. Each state will have federal funds along with state-granted five percent matching funds to make security updates and accessibility updates can include buying new election infrastructure, making election websites more accessible, or beta testing new election equipment.
Due to concerns about hacking, there may be a significant push for these funds to be used entirely for security purposes and to focus less on accessibility. However, inaccessibility is still a major barrier to voting for people with disabilities, and a 2012 report by Rutgers University found that over 30 percent of people with disabilities experienced at least one difficulty in casting their ballots, as compared to only 8.5 percent of people without disabilities. Therefore, Secretaries of State need input and advocacy from the disability community to inform them that accessibility is a priority and still a significant need in election systems across the country. We ask you to call your Secretary of State and advocate for these grant funds to be used on election accessibility, including election website accessibility, buying new election infrastructure, and beta testing new accessible election technology.
If you have any questions, please contact Sarah Blahovec at [email protected] or 202-207-0334 ext. 1103.
