As of this week, Governor Lamont signed an executive order allowing all eligible Connecticut residents to vote absentee. However, the current vote by mail system is not accessible to those with visual impairments or other severe physical disabilities, as they have no way of seeing, holding, or marking a physical paper ballot independently. To ask for assistance in doing so does not only infringe on one’s privacy, but is also degrading, and simply impossible for those who live on their own.

As such, disabled Connecticut residents are left with two inadequate options: risking their safety by utilizing public transportation in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic to travel to the polls in order to use accessible voting machines; or, trying to reconcile exclusion from the absentee process. Despite reaching out to multiple elections officials on a regular basis, I have not received a single response regarding a solution for the prominent issue at hand. Accessible voting should not end at the polling place. The ADA, section 508, and Title 2 all speak to government infrastructure, in which voting is a significant component. I hope that Connecticut can uphold its progressive ideals and support safe, secure, and accessible voting.

Melissa Carney

Deep River