The new law contains the first major changes to the voting process since 1965.

It requires states to devise "uniform and non-discriminatory standards" for counting ballots, and would would give federal funds to states to create computerized voter registration lists, modernize their voting systems, replace antiquated machines, educate poll workers, and ensure access to people with disabilities -- by 2004, at least one polling machine in each voting precinct would have to be be accessible to disabled persons, ensuring that people who are blind or who have other physical disabilties could cast ballots privately and independently. First-time voters registering by mail would have to present identification when they vote.

"The legislation has serious flaws," says the American ASsocition of People with Disabilities. AAPD and other groups are concerned that enforcement mechanisms in the bill -- especially for the provision of access to persons with disabiltiy -- are too weak. "We have learned from other disability laws that enforcement is necessary to translate good policy into real access," says AAPD.

The compromise worked out by the House and Senate erects "a set of new barriers to voter registration that will seriously limit the participation of the country's poorest citizens with disabilities, particularly Americans with disabilities who are unable to leave their residences and those with cognitive or psychiatric disabilities," the group adds. "The identification requirements as written, in an effort to prevent fraud, will make it extremely difficult for the 3.5 million Americans with disabilities who do not have drivers' licenses or non-driving identification to vote."

The bill is only the latest in a series of legislative efforts to ensure access to the polls for people with disabilities. The Voting Accessibility for the Elderly and Handicapped Act of 1984 (P.L. 98-435) was also supposed to ensure access. "Yet at the last oversight hearing in 1994, 10 years after enactment, the Federal Elections Committee reported that about 14 percent, or 20,000, of polls nationwide were inaccessible," says the Paralyzed Veterans of America. "Since the 1994 report, FEC has done little to monitor or educate jurisdictions on their responsibility under the Act."

EXPERTS:

Kay Schriner and Douglas Kruse have conducted a number of studies about voting access and persons with disabilities.

Kay Schriner, Ph.D., Department of Political Science
University of Arkansas
501-575-6417 (direct)
501-575-3356 (reception)
kays@comp.uark.edu

Douglas Kruse, School of Management and Labor Relations
Rutgers University
732-445-5991
dkruse@rci.rutgers.edu