skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Friday, March 29, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Votes Tallied: IA is a Winner in Voting Accessibility

play audio
Play

Thursday, June 11, 2009   

Washington, D.C. – It's been months since the November election, but voters with disabilities may remember it like yesterday - because of sheer frustration at the polls.

The Government Accountability Office reports that about 70 percent of polling places nationwide had some sort of barriers to voting for people with disabilities last year. More than 30 percent of them lacked wheelchair accessibility, despite the existence of the "Help America Vote Act," which was signed into law seven years ago to ensure that voting was accessible to all.

Iowa can brag about a higher accessibility rate than the national average, according to Secretary of State Michael Mauro. He says there are uniform voting machines in every Iowa polling place, and the state has worked to make all of them easy to access for people with disabilities.

"We actually went out and helped different jurisdictions with making polling places more accessible, whether it be a ramp, or some paving, or those type of things."

Years ago, adds Mauro, his office issued hundreds of waivers of accessibility to precincts that could not meet federal and state requirements. Today, that has dropped to almost zero.

"The only exceptions would be in an emergency situation, or a case where nothing else is absolutely available - and that requires a waiver approved by the state."

Mauro says the November election was the first in Iowa in which every polling place contained a machine capable of assisting voters with disabilities, allowing them to cast their ballots privately and independently. Election officials also were required to go to the person's vehicle and help them vote on the spot, if they were unable to get into the polling place.



get more stories like this via email

more stories
The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments this week about the popular abortion pill Mifepristone and will weigh in on whether the U.S. Food and Drug Administration was correct in how it can be dosed and prescribed. (Ascannio/Adobe Stock)

Health and Wellness

play sound

Missouri residents are worried about future access to birth control. The latest survey from The Right Time, an initiative based in Missouri…


Social Issues

play sound

Wisconsin children from low-income families are now on track to get nutritious foods over the summer. Federal officials have approved the Badger …

Social Issues

play sound

Almost 2,900 people are unsheltered on any given night in the Beehive State. Gov. Spencer Cox is celebrating signing nine bills he says are geared …


The U.S. teaching workforce remains primarily white while the percentage of Black teachers has declined. However, the percentage of Asian and Latinx teachers is rising.(WavebreakMediaMicro/Adobestock)

Social Issues

play sound

Education advocates are calling on lawmakers to increase funding for programs to combat the teacher shortage. Around 37% of schools nationwide …

Environment

play sound

New York's Legislature is considering a bill to get clean-energy projects connected to the grid faster. It's called the RAPID Act, for "Renewable …

Social Issues

play sound

Earlier this month, a new Arizona Public Service rate hike went into effect and one senior advocacy group said those on a fixed income may struggle …

Social Issues

play sound

Michigan recently implemented a significant juvenile justice reform package following recommendations from a task force made up of prosecutors…

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021