I’m a Poll Worker or Volunteer

If you are working at a polling location, you may have voters with disabilities who ask for help when casting their ballots. Here are some things to know.

Assisting voters with disabilities

• Use respectful language: TCDD uses people-first language, which emphasizes the person over the disability (“person with a disability”). However, some voters will use other forms of language to describe themselves, including identity-first language, which emphasizes the disability over the person (“disabled person”). If you’re unsure, then ask the voter. Always use language that respects personal choice.
• Speak directly: Address the voter rather than a companion or interpreter if one accompanies the voter into your polling location.
• Respect adaptive devices: Treat adaptive devices — including wheelchairs, scooters, walkers, hearing aids, or assistive computer technology — as an extension of the voter. Ask for permission before providing assistance that involves a voter’s adaptive device. Never attempt to take control of a voter’s adaptive device.
• Accommodate service animals: Voters with disabilities can have service animals in your polling location. Don’t distract service animals by petting, touching, or talking to them. Service animals are not required to wear ID badges or display signage.
• Help without assumptions: Make assistance available to everyone but remember that a voter with a disability may not want or need your help. Voters with disabilities have a wide variety of capabilities, so avoid assumptions or generalizations about each voter’s level of functioning and support needs. When in doubt, ask.   
    

Making polling locations accessible

• Signs: Make sure signs in your polling location are simple, clear, and easy to understand. Use signs to provide instruction and to identify accessible pathways in voting areas.
• Easy access: Remove barriers, objects, or obstacles that could get in a voter’s way. Remember to make sure that cords, cables, and wires are secure and not blocking pathways.
• Height clearance: Make sure sign-in tables and voting booths have adequate height clearance for voters using wheelchairs or other assistive devices. 
      

Understanding new voting laws

• In-person: People providing assistance with in-person voting must provide their address and their relationship to the voter they are helping. They must also sign an oath that the voter they are assisting is eligible to receive assistance and that the person providing assistance is not being paid to do so.
• Curbside: A person who transports a group of seven or more people who are not related to each other must complete and sign a form with the person’s name and address and indicate if the person is providing assistance properly and without being paid to do so.
• Poll watchers: Watchers may observe assistance given to voters by poll workers and inspect the ballot before it is put in the ballot box to determine if the ballot was marked as the voter directed. A watcher may not be present at the voting station when a voter is marking a ballot or receiving help from a person of the voter’s choice, including from a person also serving as an interpreter at the voting station.