Voting Rights

Disability Rights Texas protects the voting rights of individuals with disabilities, ensuring their full participation in the voting process.

Important 2013 Election Dates

What Is HAVA?
HAVA stands for the Help America Vote Act, which is a federal law passed by Congress in 2002 to improve our country’s election system. HAVA’s main goal is to make the voting process more inclusive and accessible so that more Americans will become registered voters and participate in elections.

What Does HAVA Do?
HAVA makes voting processes more consistent from state to state. Under HAVA, states now have established standards for voting equipment and voter registration processes. HAVA also aims to educate election workers and the general public about people’s voting rights and the process.

Why Is HAVA Important to People With Disabilities?
One of HAVA’s primary goals is to “ensure accessible voting.” The law gives specific guidelines about accessibility and accommodations for voters with disabilities. Congress gave money to each state’s protection and advocacy agency (P&A) to promote accessible voting, identify and resolve problems, and educate and assist election authorities and people with disabilities.

What Is the Texas P&A Doing to Help?
Disability Rights Texas has specialists on staff to a carry out a wide variety of HAVA-related activities, such as training people with disabilities on voting rights, surveying polling places, working with election officials and responding to legislative inquiries. In addition to these year-round activities, DRTx runs a special toll-free Voter Rights Hotline, 1-888-796-VOTE (8683), to answer questions, respond to legal violations and troubleshoot problems.

We help ensure that Texans with disabilities can:

• Register to vote
• Access polling places
• Cast a ballot
• File a complaint if excluded from any part of the process

Some examples of our work in this area include:

• Providing trainings to individuals with disabilities about their voting rights
• Educating election workers on the rights of people with disabilities
• Providing technical assistance to election workers and state officials on best practices for people with disabilities
• Advocating for policies and procedures that advance the voting rights of Texans with disabilities

If you have questions about your voting rights or you need to report a violation, call the Disability Rights Texas Voter Rights Hotline at 1-888-796-VOTE (8683) or send an e-mail to vote@disabilityrightstx.org.

Additional information on Voting Rights of people with disabilities can be found on the HAVA brochure (Folleto HAVA).

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