About 25 percent of Arkansas polling places don't comply with federal law

ARKANSAS (KATV) — Under federal law, every polling place has to be accessible for folks with disabilities, but a Disability Rights Arkansas found those rules are not always being followed in Arkansas. Over the last four months DRA and other volunteers surveyed nearly 200 polling sites across the state. About 25% of them had at least one problem that would make exercizing the right to vote harder for someone with disabilities.

"We saw a lot of issues, especially in the more rural areas of the state where there aren't necessarily as many choices for a big community place for people to gather. We saw a lot of issues with gravel parking lots, lack of walkways, lack of signage for accessible parking, lack of accessible parking in general." said Christian Adcock of Disability Rights Arkansas.

Some locations, like the Bird Town Community Center in Springfield did not have a wheelchair ramp. Other polling places in Hattieville and Waltrek had ramps, but they were too steep and not compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act standard.

"Unfortunately, when the rubber hits the road on November 8th, it is really going to come down to who is doing what they are supposed to do and who is not," said Adcock.

Often early voting locations are government buildings and are already in compliance with federal law. It's at polling places, like churches, that are open only on election day where many of the problems are found. Churches are not required to comply with ADA standards, but on election day all polling places are.

Saline County Clerk Doug Curtis said when the ADA was passed, many voting locations had to be changed. He keeps a store of about 40 mobile disabled parking signs to bring polling places in his county into compliance.

"If they do not have signs there, do not have parking places marked, we have signs that we take out there, and we put up to meet the ADA requirement," said Curtis.

Curtis plans to evaluate all his polling sites after this election.

"You see some folks pull up here, and it is a lot of trouble for them to get out of their van, get in a wheelchair. It's a lot of work, and if people are going to put that much time trying to get in to vote, you can bet that we are going to be there to make sure that they can vote," said Curtis.

If voters run into any issues at the polls on November 8, they can call 1-866-OUR-VOTE for help from the ACLU and Disability Rights Arkansas.