US Court Blocks Ruling Preventing Help for Disabled Voters
Court says requiring disabled voters to cast ballots themselves violates Voting Rights Act.
Vote here sign outside a Milwaukee polling place. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.
On Wednesday, a federal judge blocked the Wisconsin Elections Commission from enforcing a ruling that would have required voters living with disabilities to cast their ballots without assistance.
Last month, a conservative majority in the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled voters cannot allow a third party to deliver their ballot for them.
In his order, U.S. District Judge James Peterson states that the Voting Rights Act is clear in allowing voters with disabilities the right to have assistance from a person of their choosing when casting a ballot.“Voters shouldn’t have to choose between exercising their federal rights and complying with state law,” Peterson writes. “But that is the position that plaintiffs find themselves in, and that is in part because defendants have refused to provide needed clarification. If defendants cannot or will not give plaintiffs assurances that their right to vote is protected, this court must do so.”
Law Forward, a nonprofit law firm, filed a lawsuit last month on behalf of four voters living with disabilities against the WEC and its administrator, Meagan Wolfe. It alleged the ruling essentially revoked the plaintiffs’ ability to vote. All four live with disabilities that make them physically incapable of casting a ballot in person and require them to have someone else send in their ballot.
The U.S. district court ruled prohibiting those voters from using assistance was illegal under the Voting Rights Act. It did not block the WEC from enforcing the decision on voters who don’t need help delivering their ballots.
The four voters who filed the suit are Timothy Carey of Appleton, Martha Chambers of Milwaukee, Scott Luber of Mequon and Mike Reece of Sun Prairie.
Carey and Luber have muscular dystrophy and are unable to move their bodies. Reece has cerebral palsy, that limits his movements. Chambers is paralyzed from the neck down.US court blocks ruling that would have required voters living with disabilities to cast ballots themselves was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio
