Los Angeles voters with disabilities may see changes to the ways they can cast their vote at polling stations this November.

The U.S. Department of Justice reached a settlement agreement with LA County following a lawsuit alleging that the county’s polling centers violated the Americans with Disabilities Act. In accordance with the settlement, the county must make plans to enhance accessibility of its voting structure.

The lawsuit, filed by the DOJ in June 2023, was submitted following a six-year investigation into LA County’s voting structure which found that the county had excluded voters with disabilities at in-person voting locations through architectural barriers, inaccessible curbside voting and lack of accessible parking.

In the August settlement, both parties agreed that a third-party accessibility consultant will work with LA County for three years on site selection policies and procedures to ensure the accessibility of voting centers during the voting period.

“This agreement should send a message to officials across the country regarding the need to ensure the accessibility of the voting process now,” said Kristen Clarke, assistant attorney general of the DOJ’s civil rights division, in a press release.

Miguel Lugo, an outreach specialist at Disability Voices United and a voter with cerebral palsy, said he voted in LA during the last presidential election and was surprised to find the lack of consideration for accessible voting at the polling station.

“Honestly, it seemed that the disabled community was like an afterthought,” he said. “The disabled community is the biggest minority that we have; I think that community should be a priority.”

Lugo said when he got to the location, access was initially blocked, leaving them having to rush to clear a path. He added that in order to increase attention to accessibility at voting centers, the county should pay election staff and hire voters with disabilities.

“I think they need to hire people with disabilities to really focus on the goal that they’re trying to obtain,” Lugo said. “I understand that they’re trying to get there, but we’re in 2024. It should no longer be a case of … ‘trying to get there.’”

Beth Ribet, an adjunct professor of law at UC San Francisco, said that none of the issues that were brought up in the settlement were new and instead are just now being brought under a deserved light.

“The fact that Los Angeles has erected or maintained too many barriers to voting for people with disabilities is and should be recognized as a real crisis,” she said.

Disabled voters could see significant improvements in accessibility if the county follows the settlement, she added.

Lucy Weiss – a third-year law student at UCLA School of Law and co-editor in chief of the Disability Law Journal – said LA County is covered by the Voter’s Choice Act, a California law that provides greater flexibility for voters, such as allowing voters to cast a ballot at any vote center within the county. However, the county was not meeting the stricter requirements for accessibility as guaranteed under this law prior to the settlement, she added.

“Voting centers have different requirements than just polling locations, and the Voter’s Choice Act also requires there to be ballot drop boxes based on the amount of people,” Weiss said.

Aashi Jhawer and Dzian Tran, the co-executive directors of the Voters of Tomorrow California chapter, said steps have been taken at both the California and national VOT chapters to ensure accessible voting – including by providing information about voting to those with disabilities over the phone.

“If someone on the other end of the line discusses that they may have a disability or a problem with accessibility, … we’ll guide them and try to find an alternative for them and really have that individualized, personalized kind of conversation so that they feel supported in their right to vote,” Jhawer, a second-year business economics and human biology and society student, said.

She added that it is vital for college students to have accessible voting, as there have been efforts to disenfranchise college voters across the country – such as in Texas, where students have been banned from voting on campus.

Lugo added that the third-party accessibility consultant proposed in the settlement may not be enough to ensure accessibility of LA’s voting structure.

“Do they understand the culture? Because that has a lot to do with accessibility – it’s not only physical disabilities that we should be focused on,” he said. “Disabilities come in different shapes and sizes.”

Weiss added that in order to ensure safe voting access, registrars should have thorough training, and budgeting could be increased for hiring at polling places.

“On Election Day, if the machines break, or if people don’t actually know how to even use them, voters with disabilities should not be explaining the machines to the volunteers,” Weiss said. “It should be the other way around.”

She also said that another factor to consider in ensuring accessibility is making sure all voters have the option to vote from home.

“Everyone deserves the right to a private, safe vote,” Weiss said.