On June 30, the Disability Rights Delaware (DRD) of Community Legal Aid Society, Inc. (CLASI) released a new report with findings from its most comprehensive polling place assessment to date, which surveyed over 90% of Delaware’s polling places and found that more than half violated accessible parking laws.
DRD poll monitors surveyed 258 of Delaware’s 284 polling places during the 2024 General Election for compliance with Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requirements meant to ensure that all voters with disabilities can access polling sites and exercise their fundamental right to vote.
Monitors assessed almost twice as many polling places in 2024 as they did during the 2022 election, offering an unprecedented overview of accessibility conditions statewide.
The report shows that 54% of polling places failed to meet ADA parking accessibility requirements, a significant increase from 30% of polling places that did not meet those requirements during the last election, according to DRD’s 2022 General Election poll monitoring report.
In addition to parking problems, the DRD poll monitoring report also found accessibility issues with exterior routes at polling sites, with the most common problems being failure to clearly mark accessible entrances and paths to them from parking areas. By contrast, DRD poll monitors found that interior routes were largely accessible during the 2024 election, with the most significant issues only occurring at 2-4% of sites statewide.
The DRD report also specifically assessed conditions at 25 “priority” polling sites that were either used for the first time or improved by the Department of Elections to address accessibility concerns identified by DRD during the 2022 election, and to reduce congestion by increasing the overall number of sites. The report concludes that the 25 new or improved polling sites introduced by the Department of Elections in 2024 performed on par with, or slightly better than, polling places statewide.
The report found some progress was made in improving exterior path and interior route accessibility issues such as uneven surfaces, entrance thresholds that are too high, and narrow door widths at these sites. However, parking accessibility and clear accessible route signage remained widespread issues.
About Disability Rights Delaware of Community Legal Aid Society, Inc.:
Founded in 1946, the mission of Community Legal Aid Society, Inc. (“CLASI”) is to combat injustice through creative and persistent civil legal advocacy on behalf of vulnerable and underserved Delawareans. CLASI provides free legal representation to people with disabilities, people aged 60 or over, people with low incomes, and victims of crime and discrimination to help our clients obtain shelter, government benefits, educational services, medical services, orders of protection from abuse, legal immigration status, and other civil legal remedies. CLASI has offices in Wilmington, Dover, and Georgetown.
CLASI’s Disability Rights Delaware (“DRD”) program, formerly known as the Disabilities Law Program, provides free legal representation to children and adults with physical and mental disabilities to protect them from abuse and neglect and to advocate for their legal rights in the community and facilities. DRD serves as Delaware’s designated Protection and Advocacy system for people with disabilities (“P&A”).
