Disability Voting News: March 12, 2025
Cross-posted to my newsletter.
Welcome to the first real edition of The Accessible Voting Booth! I’m excited to dive into what is happening this week and how it’s impacting voters with disabilities. This blog is a little bit of a “building the plane while flying it” moment for me. I really love talking about disability voting rights and getting down into the details, but I realize a lot of folks may find this tedious. To make this a little more fun, I’ve decided to share reaction images from my dog, Oliver (and I may reach back into the archives for reactions from my charismatic schnauzers who have crossed the rainbow bridge, Harpo and Cassie). With that, let’s begin!
New Hampshire’s new voter registration rules go into effect (via WMUR).
Last year, New Hampshire passed legislation to require voters to provide documentary proof of citizenship (DPOC) to register to vote. Before 2025, New Hampshire residents were asked to provide documents to prove their identity, age, citizenship, and domicile to register; however, if they couldn’t provide those documents, they could sign an affidavit and still register to vote. Now, residents are required to provide this information. The Secretary of State’s office has provided a document with guidance on acceptable proof. New Hampshire’s voter registration mainly takes place in person on or before Election Day, and they do not have an online voter registration system. Voters who have a disability, are out of town, or have another qualifying reason may register to vote by mail. Yesterday was the first election in New Hampshire with these new rules in effect.
On LinkedIn, I have discussed how documentary proof of citizenship requirements impact voters with disabilities, and why people with disabilities may have a harder time and face more accessibility barriers in both registering to vote and obtaining the necessary documentation to meet these requirements. What is documentary proof of citizenship (DPOC)? It’s like voter ID laws on steroids: citizens would have to prove they are citizens of the United States just to register to vote using a document like a passport, naturalization papers, or U.S. birth certificate. All of this is being put in place under the guise of stopping noncitizens from voting, even though noncitizen voting is already a federal crime and nearly nonexistent.
I plan on going into more detail about DPOC requirements and legislation in a future blog post, because this is a major voting rights issue in 2025. 18 states are currently considering DPOC legislation, and Congress is considering the Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, which if passed, could disenfranchise millions, especially young people, elderly people, people of color, and anybody who has changed their name from their birth name.
New Hampshire isn’t the only state that passed DPOC legislation last year. Louisiana also passed a law that took effect on January 1, but the Secretary of State has not issued guidance on how this legislation would be implemented, and they already held one election so far in 2025. Arizona is also a notable state for DPOC, as they passed legislation (H.B. 2492) in 2022 that has been tied up in legal battles. Voters who don’t provide DPOC are only allowed to vote in federal races. They are barred from voting on local races, state races, and ballot measures. Courts have struck down some provisions of the legislation which would require DPOC for voting in federal races. However, they have allowed Arizona to continue to require DPOC for down-ballot races and ballot measures. Arizona’s legislation is likely to end up in front of the Supreme Court.
I know that was a lot of information, so I hope you’re still with me! As I said, documentary proof of citizenship is a major voting rights battle in 2025, so this is an important issue to understand and push back against this year.
Feeling overwhelmed? Take a moment to breathe and stare into the soulful eyes of my dog, Oliver.
Let’s continue.
“New Jersey expands early voting for primary elections” (via The Markup).
S.B. 3990 has added three days to early voting in non-presidential primary elections! New Jersey has a gubernatorial election on June 10th. Expanded early voting benefits voters with disabilities in many ways. It allows for greater flexibility in when voters with disabilities can vote, which is particularly beneficial for voters who may depend on public transit or paratransit. Early voting also reduces waiting times and long lines at polling places. In the past, I have spoken about why I prefer efforts to extend early voting over efforts to make Election Day a national holiday. I won’t get into that discussion now (maybe in a future blog post?) but I’m very excited about this news.
“Utah bill to end universal mail voting heads to governor” (via The Markup).
Utah Governor Spencer Cox is expected to sign H.B. 300 into law, which would end universal mail voting. Utah is currently one of eight states who send mail ballots automatically to all voters during general elections. Instead, voters will have to opt into voting by mail. The small bit of good news is that this doesn’t end mail voting completely, but if voters are accustomed to receiving their ballots automatically, election officials and voting rights organizations will have to work hard to inform voters about their need to opt in to receive their ballots, and they will have to ensure that their instructions on opting in are cognitively accessible. I’m not thrilled about this news and greeted it with as much enthusiasm as Oliver when he is woken up from a nap.
Alaska Senate introduces comprehensive bill addressing vote by mail (via Voting Rights Lab).
S.B. 64 would proposes significant positive changes for voting by mail.
Currently, voters who want to vote by mail must apply every year to vote by mail. S.B. 64 would create a permanent vote by mail list so voters don’t have to re-apply for a mail ballot yearly.
It would also eliminate the requirement for a notary public or witness signature on an absentee ballot.
Alaska validates ballots with a signature requirement, and so officials check a voter’s signature on their ballot envelope against the record on their voter file. Signature requirements are a major challenge for voters with progressive disabilities or disabilities that would otherwise change their handwriting, and their ballot may be rejected due to a signature match issue. This bill would establish a ballot curing system which would notify a voter if their ballot were rejected due to a mismatched or missing signature or lack of voter identification, and it would give the voter an opportunity to correct the discrepancy and have their ballot counted.
S.B. 64 would allow individuals registering to vote to submit an electronic signature instead of a handwritten signature.
It would also require elections officials to provide secure ballot drop boxes that would be open 24 hours a day in the 10 days leading up to an election and up until 8 PM on Election Day.
Missouri Considers Voting Rights Restoration Bill in Committee Today (via Voting Rights Lab).
Today, Missouri’s Committee on Corrections and Public Institutions is considering H.B. 617, which would restore voting rights to people on probation or parole for a felony conviction (via Voting Rights Lab). Voting rights restoration is a major disability rights issue, as people with disabilities are disproportionately overrepresented in the criminal justice system. According to the Prison Policy Initiative, 40% of people in state prisons have a disability while only comprising 15% of the U.S. general population (per Census Bureau reporting of disability). From the Center for American Progress: “prison inmates are four times as likely and jail inmates more than six times as likely to report a cognitive disability than the general population,” and 1 in 5 inmates have reported a mental illness.
New Resource from the Center for Civic Design on Election Websites!
“Designing Election Websites: A nonpartisan guide to designing websites that help voters find, understand, and use elections information on the web.” I was so excited to see this guide! Early in my career, I met with several local elections offices about the accessibility of their websites and sample ballots, and one of the things I heard frequently was that they just didn’t have the authority or resources to go in and fix access barriers on the election website, nor did they know where to start with addressing accessibility issues.
This guide by the Center for Civic Design is specifically tailored to election offices in small- and medium-size jurisdictions that are more constrained in terms of their staff and resources. I love that this guide takes something that feels intimidating—how to design an accessible and effective website with little to no IT background—and breaks it down into much more digestible information. The guide walks through the basics of working with IT and understanding the basics of your websites, then goes into understanding and designing navigation, design and page layout, content, maintenance, and improvement. It’s a wonderful resource for election officials, organizations working in the civic engagement space, and anyone who wants a better understanding of designing accessible, clear, and effective websites.
Election News This Week: There is a lot going on, and all of it impacts voters with disabilities! I will not be able to cover every update, and I highly encourage you to subscribe to the Voting Rights Lab’s newsletter “The Markup,” which provides concise weekly updates on voting rights legislation.
Thank you for joining me for the first edition of The Accessible Voting Booth! I had a great time writing this—I love nerding out over elections. I can’t wait to share more updates with you next week. In the meantime, if you’d like to support my work as an under-employed but passionate disability voting rights organizer, you can:
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Let me know if you have any feedback. Do you have any questions about disability voting rights? News that you’d like to share? You can reach me at sarah@sarahblahovec.com.
