Disability charity, Revitalise asks if wheelchair users are being denied their right to vote in person by a lack of information?
National disability charity Revitalise has revealed that wheelchair users wishing to exercise their right to cast their vote in person may be discouraged from doing so by a lack of online information about the access arrangements of polling stations.
In response to a statement from the Electoral Commission, the charity’s ongoing research has found that not one of the UK’s 30 most marginal seats has any information about wheelchair access to their polling stations online.
The campaign tone of the General Election has certainly been cagey to say the least. Neither of the main parties has been too enthusiastic about showing the details behind certain policies and this appears to be a continuation of that theme – but this is genuinely asking people to ‘roll the dice’ and turn up at a polling station without knowing whether or not they can get in. It’s the kind of situation that will almost certainly make wheelchair users more reluctant to ‘turn out’ on Thursday.
For its part, the Electoral Commission has asserted that there should be no barriers to disabled people in casting their vote but the practical reality still seems to be being handled in quite an uneven and amateurish manner.
Revitalise CEO, Chris Simmonds commented: “Of course disabled people have the option to make a postal or proxy vote, but what if they want to go to a polling station in their wheelchairs and take part in the democratic process in person, just like the rest of us?
This is a right the rest of the population takes for granted, but our ongoing study has found a woeful lack of information for wheelchair users about polling stations on council websites, which is where we all look for voting information.”
The process of voting isn’t just about who to vote for; it’s about also exercising a free choice in how to do it. Whilst postal or proxy voting may be the answer, disabled people should not be condemned to sit in isolation whilst other more able-bodied people are given the choice to visit a polling station should they wish to. Even though all votes are equal, it’s important that access is guaranteed so that disabled people have a full range of voting methods to choose from. This is the closest General Election in a generation and a matter of a few votes could swing marginal seats and could determine the nature of the next government.
Chris Simmonds continues: “The suggestion that Returning Officers could take ballot papers out of the polling stations, thus compelling wheelchair users to vote in full view of the street, is shameful and an indictment of just how little progress has been made in making the democratic process dignified and respectful for disabled people.
The Electoral Commission may have issued guidelines to Returning Officers in certain aspects of accessibility at polling stations, but the fact remains that polling stations are under no legal obligation to be wheelchair accessible. Until this situation changes, wheelchair voters will continue to be made to feel like second class citizens.”
