Voting in PA If You Have a Disability
Activist extraordinaire Fran Hazam has sent much info on the challenges to voters with disabilities. If you need any of the forms mentioned herein, let me know by emailing me: lspikol@philadelphiaweekly.com, and I’ll get them out to you.
One thing to keep in mind, Fran says: “a voter in the hospital will need assistance from a friend to complete an Emergency Absentee Ballot. The process can be complicated to use for someone who is ill, since the completed ballot has to be hand delivered to the County Election Board….not to your local polling place.”
She also says, “In Philadelphia Remember to Vote the 2 Questions First…..so easy to forget them after choosing candidates. But important YOU be heard on these changes to the City Charter !” This is especially good advice to us with cognitive difficulties.
The below is from Paul O’Hanlon, Esq., of the Disability Rights Network:
Election Day Survival Kit for Voters with Disabilities
Pennsylvania registered a record numbers of new voters last year. If the poll worker cannot find your name on the list of registered voters, ask them to look at the list of “inactive voters.” Voters who have not voted for a few elections, or who did not receive or respond to official election mailings have been placed on a list of “inactive voters.” The act of voting will be sufficient to transfer your name from the ”inactive” to the “active” list. If your name cannot be found on either list, and if you are sure you are at the correct polling place – ask for a provisional ballot. Federal law requires that you be provided with a provisional ballot in such a case. Do not leave the polls without casting a vote!
How do I verify that I am registered to vote?
Go here.How do I locate my correct polling place?
Go here.Will I be required to show I.D. to vote?
All first-time voters, and all voters who are voting for the first time in a precinct, can be required to show an acceptable form of I.D. You can find a list of acceptable forms of I.D. here.If you do not have I.D. when you go to vote, and if returning later with proper I.D. is not an option, you have a right to vote by a Provisional Ballot. Provisional Ballots receive greater scrutiny than other ballots. However, if you are registered to vote, and if your signature matches the signature on your voter’s signature card, then your Provisional Ballot should get counted. If necessary, casting a Provisional Ballot is much better than not voting at all.
Can I get assistance in the voting booth if I need it?
Voters with disabilities have the right to have the person of their choice provide assistance in the voting booth. The person providing assistance can be almost anyone — a friend, a family member, or even a poll worker. However, the assistant cannot be: (1) the voter’s employer; (2) the voter’s union representative; or (3) the Judge of Elections.
When a voter with a disability requests assistance in the voting booth, the poll worker should look up your registration card to see if it has a notation indicating that you require assistance. If there is no notation on the card, you will be required to complete a written statement explaining the nature of your disability. Some voters may be offended at intrusive questions like asking for the name, phone # and address of their doctor. But the poll workers are required to enter all this information, along with the name of the individual who provided assistance, into the “Record of Assisted Voters.” The voting process is a very formal process with many safeguards.
What if I find my polling place is not accessible on Election Day? How can I vote?
Voters with disabilities, as well as seniors 65 and older — who are assigned to inaccessible polling places — are eligible to cast an Alternative Ballot. It is called an “Alternative” ballot because it is a method of voting provided to the voter as an alternative to having an accessible location. (Some deal!)
An Alternative Ballot looks exactly like an Absentee Ballot, but a different colored envelope is used to distinguish it from an Absentee Ballot. The normal deadline to file an application for an Alternative Ballot is the Tuesday before Election Day. However, if you did not know that your polling place is inaccessible, or if you had some good cause for not being able to file by that deadline – you can still vote! The Pennsylvania Department of State created procedures for an Emergency Application for an Alternative Ballot, which may be filed as late as Election Day at 8:00 p.m. A voter with a disability who discovers on Election Day that their polling place is not accessible can file an Emergency Application for an Alternative Ballot. This Emergency Application must be filed on Election Day, before 8:00 p.m., at your County Elections Office.
What if you can’t get to your County Elections Office on Election Day?
If you are unable to travel to the County Elections Office on Election Day, you can get a friend or relative to act as your agent to travel back and forth to the County Elections Office.
You will need to prepare three forms: (1) the Emergency Application for Alternative Ballot; (2) the Designated Agent Form; and (3) the Certification of Designated Agent Form.
What if my right to vote is challenged on Election Day? What if someone says I’m not competent to vote?
In Pennsylvania, we have only 3 qualifications for a person to register and to vote. The individual must be:
• A citizen of the United States for at least one month before the election;
• A resident of Pennsylvania and the election district for at least 30 days before the election;
• At least 18 years of age on or before the day of the election.
Pennsylvania does not have any laws that restrict the right to vote of people who happen to have developmental, mental health, or physical disabilities. In rare instances, Courts issue orders depriving people of the right to vote. But, so far , “electors” in Pennsylvania cannot be challenged on competence, ability or worthiness to vote.
Persons convicted of felonies (or any other crime) are eligible to vote – only individuals currently incarcerated in penal institutions for felony convictions are denied the right to vote.Who can I call on Election Day if I’m prevented from exercising my right to vote?
Call the Election Protection hotline at 1-866-OURVOTE (1-866-687-8683)
Voters who speak Spanish can call 1-888-VE-Y-VOTA (1-888-839-8682)
or
Disability Rights Network of Pennsylvania1-800-692-7443
1-877-375-7139 (TODD)
Voting is your right. Don’t leave the polls without voting!
Your vote matters — but only if you use it!
liz | 12:58 PM | DISABILITY, philadelphia, politics
You Have the Right to Vote. Today.
I’m pulling the lever for Dan McElhatton for D.A. and Brett Mandel for controller, as well as a few judges, including Dan Anders. Not that you care. But you should vote. Many people in other countries don’t have this right. And women and African-Americans didn’t have the right until shamefully recently. And many formerly incarcerated people don’t have the right. And people with language barriers often don’t vote because they can’t. People who are disabled are often turned away from non-accessible polls. People in poverty are routinely disaffected from the voting process.
The ACLU’s Voting Rights Project webpage details all kinds of cases in which voting rights are compromised, even in the U.S., even in 2009. I vote because I feel privileged to be able to do so. I’m one of the lucky ones, is how I think about it.
For information on Election Day if you live near me, go to the Committee of Seventy’s website.
liz | 10:17 AM | philadelphia, politics
Nightmares Do Come True
Don't let me blow away
Pretty much every night I have a dream that something horrible has happened to Hannah (pictured above), my sweet Chihuahua. Turns out, I have reason to worry. From ABC News:
Bystanders at a Detroit-area flea market were stunned this weekend when high winds from a passing storm picked up a couple’s Chihuahua puppy and blew her out of sight.
After two days of searching and consulting with a pet psychic, Tinkerbell was found almost a mile away in the woods dirty but unharmed. …
“We were shocked when we found her,” Dorothy Utley, 72, told The Detroit News. “You don’t know how happy we were. We love her so much.”
It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane, It’s a … Flying Chihuahua?
liz | 2:09 PM | cute fix, hospitals / hospitalization, media, philadelphia, random, violence
Philly.com’s New Flourish
It’s a site for women. It’s also the most depressing thing you’ll ever read. If that’s what being a woman in this city — in any city — is about, I’m going in for gender reassignment tomorrow.
It’s sad to see the desperation in the media world today, and believe me, I’m not exempting PW from that. It’s like a bunch of cut-rate magicians standing onstage, all waving their handkerchiefs frantically at the audience and producing coins out of each other’s butts. Who do you look at? None of them.
Sigh.
liz | 3:32 PM | media, philadelphia
Oh No! R.I.P. Harry Kalas
The other guy is going nuts, but Kalas is always the gentleman. I love that little smile, though.
For more great Kalas moments, go here.
liz | 1:14 PM | philadelphia, random
I No Longer Remember How to Make a Video
But I tried. I keep getting flack from my subscribers for being missing in action. So here’s the latest.
liz | 11:56 AM | anxiety, bipolar disorder, depression, philadelphia, random
Waterboarding: It’s Not Just for Torture Anymore!
Chipper words for this morning, via Philebrity:
There’s an interesting piece over at The Huffington Post today, which talks about waterboarding’s secret history as a “treatment” for the insane in the 1800s. As it turns out, much of what we know about the practice in those days centers around a Philly businessman of the day named Ebenezer Haskell, who worked in Old City and was institutionalized numerous times.
And here’s an excerpt from Dan Agin’s HuffPo entry:
There are many sources that document conditions in 19th century insane asylums, but one passage in Haskell’s little book about a specific treatment is revealing. In 1867, they called it the spread-eagle cure, but these days we call it water-boarding. Ebenezer Haskell tells us the term “spread-eagle cure” was common in his time in “all asylums and prisons.” Note the conflating of asylums and prisons. More than seventy years after Benjamin Rush pushed through reforms to have mental patients kept in more humane conditions, asylums were essentially still prisons for the insane. Recall that Haskell, after each of his escapes from the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane, was “arrested” and returned to the asylum.
The spread-eagle cure, common in 1867, reveals a few things about public attitudes towards madness. The “cure” was no cure at all, simply a procedure applied to terrorize patients–especially when they were disorderly. The patient was stripped naked, thrown on the floor on his back, and then his arms and legs each gripped by one of a team of four men. The patient’s limbs were stretched out to keep him immobilized. A fifth man, a “doctor” (more often an orderly), would then stand on a chair or table at the head of the patient and pour a series of buckets of cold water on the patient’s face until the patient nearly drowned. After the treatment, the patient was returned to his dungeon supposedly “cured” of all disease, including lunacy.
According to Haskell, the shock of the treatment often caused the death of the patient. Haskell points out (five generations before our own current familiarity with this procedure) that if a steady stream of water seven or eight feet in height falls down directly on the face of a patient, the water will have the same effect as if the patient was held under water the same number of feet for the same time, since no one can breathe when water is falling directly on the nose and mouth. “It is a shock to the nervous system,” Haskell says. He knew it, the other patients knew it, and the people who managed the asylum knew it. In 19th century American asylums and prisons, they all knew the spread-eagle cure as essentially a method of terrorizing lunatics.
Proud Moments: Philly Once Led The Charge To Waterboard The Mentally Ill
How It Was: Terror and Water-Boarding the Insane in Philadelphia
liz | 10:18 AM | alternative treatments, hospitals / hospitalization, philadelphia
Fumo Guilty
As a lifelong Philadelphian, I have to say I feel a little triumphant to hear Vince Fumo has been indicted on all counts. Since I was a little girl — and I’m not exaggerating here — I’ve been hearing about Fumo’s being corrupt. Even a decade ago, you’d hear people saying, “No one will ever catch up with him. He’s Teflon.” Well, not anymore. And it pains me to hear other politicians declare their sympathy for him. Come on. Like you didn’t know what he was doing? Every yahoo in town knew Fumo was bankrupt ethically. I’m just surprised that anyone else is acting surprised.
Next up: Johnny Doc. I guarantee it.
liz | 4:11 PM | philadelphia
For Those Who Don’t Know What a Philly Accent Sounds Like
Though this is apparently the Fishtown version, you must watch this video.
I love linguistic studies, and always wanted to do one myself. I have a little bit of a Philly accent myself, as confirmed three times in the last year when people knew I was a native before I told them so. Airight, go jump in some wooder wicha.
liz | 1:39 PM | philadelphia
The Trouble With Spikol: Print Edition (Sort Of)
Okay, it’s not a Spikol column, but I did write a cover story for this week’s PW and I suspect (fear?) that a lot of people will be angry with me because of it. It makes a case for not nailing Mayor Michael Nutter to the cross over the issue of the library closures. I won’t get into more detail, but I can defend myself if need be. (And need will be, I’m afraid.)
Check it out here, but also know that Becca wanted to call it “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Nutter,” which I think is completely hilarious.
liz | 11:19 AM | philadelphia, politics
