COVID-19 and a new curb- side voting ban in Alabama exacerbate difficulties voters with disabilities like me face, but H.R. 1 gives us hope
By Dr. Eric Peebles, executive director of Accessible Alabama
I believe voting is the most sacred of all civic responsibilities. Because I have spastic cerebral palsy, a disorder that affects coordination and control of motor function, I require assistance to help me fill out ballots. But I am determined to exercise my fundamental right to vote in person whenever I can.
This has been a lifelong endeavor. In the mid-1980s, my local public school tried to bar me from attending because of my disability and wheelchair use. School officials even said I was a danger to other students because of my power wheelchair. My mother refused to accept this discrimination and lobbied local leaders on my behalf.
After two years of advocacy, my school district was put under federal supervision, and I was allowed to attend a public school.
I registered to vote after I turned 18, and I have tried to vote in every election since.
I’ve long embraced the words spoken by one of the fathers of the Americans with Disabilities Act, Justin Dart, who once told a gathering I attended: “Get into empowerment. Get into politics as if your life depended upon it. It does.”
My condition puts me at high risk for contracting and suffering severe complications, including death, from COVID-19. So as the 2020 elections neared, I felt compelled to protect my right to vote safely.
The Southern Poverty Law Center and others filed suit against Alabama officials on behalf of several voters with disabilities like me to remove the requirement for us to break social distancing and risk our lives to vote by having a notary public or two adults witness an absentee ballot.
A federal district court agreed with our arguments and lifted the challenged requirements — I immediately voted absentee. It was a good thing I didn’t delay because the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit stayed that order.