As voters across the nation prepare to head to the polls Nov. 5, Tompkins County advocacy groups are taking extra steps to make the voices of marginalized populations heard by preventing roadblocks specific to each community.
Voters with disabilities
The U.S. Election Assistance Commission reported that 17.7 million adults with disabilities cast their vote in the 2020 general election. The commission also reported that about 11% of these voters had some type of difficulty voting. There is no available data on the turnout of voters with disabilities specific to Tompkins County.
Andrea Champlin, advocacy and support specialist at the Finger Lakes Independence Center, said that even if voting is physically accessible to voters with disabilities, it is not always a primary concern on top of other daily needs.
“At the end of the day, it kind of is another chore that you have to do,” Champlin said. “When you are already struggling to meet your basic transportation needs, medical needs, any of those things, voting can just be one of those things that doesn’t get prioritized.”
Champlin said there are also physical roadblocks, like a lack of accessible transportation, that may be preventing adults with disabilities from accessing polling locations.
“We are a rural county,” Champlin said. “Folks in the city might have an easier time, but [in] those rural areas, it’s really tricky to get around and there’s limited transportation.”
Despite these barriers, the Tompkins County Board of Elections increased accessibility for voters with disabilities who are able to make it to polling locations by installing new accessible voting machines for the March 2024 village elections. These ClearMark voting machines will also be used during the 2024 general election.
Champlin said these machines have multiple different functions for voters with a variety of disabilities, including hearing impairments, visual impairments or script impairments.
“There are so many options,” Champlin said. “There’s a sip-and-puff option, they have a joystick, almost like a video game controller. The screen was a touch screen, so if that worked better for people, they could do that. … You could also change how the screen tilted, so if someone was in a wheelchair … they could adjust it. … It was really, really cool.”
The machines also include headphones for voters with visual impairments to listen to their ballot options and a touch screen feature to allow voters to adjust the size of their ballot.
Jeff Boles, advocacy specialist at FLIC, said that although these machines are a step in the right direction for Tompkins County, it is hard to come up with a solution that will be perfect for every person with a disability.
“It depends on the person and the disability involved,” Boles said. “What’s accessible for me may [not] be accessible to a person with a visual impairment or with a hearing impairment. … It’s pretty difficult to come up with something that’s 100% accessible to everyone.”
Older voters
In the 2020 general election, voter turnout was reported to have increased with age, with adults ages 65–74 having the highest voter turnout at roughly 76%, according to the United States Census Bureau. The only exception to this was the turnout for adults ages 75+, which was roughly 72%. There is no available data on older voter turnout specific to Tompkins County, which is home to approximately 11,525 residents over the age of 75.
Breelan Nash, recreation and community partnerships director at Longview Senior Living Community, said that in her experience, the older adults she works with are highly interested in voting.
“We have residents who are over 100 years old, so they were around when women … didn’t have the right to vote,” Nash said. “They remember … their mothers talking about not being able to vote. So it is incredibly important to provide opportunities for residents to both register … and to go out and vote.”
Nash said the staff at Longview communicate with residents through newsletters and flyers when elections are approaching to make sure they know how and when to vote. Nash said the Tompkins Board of Elections has also helped spread the word.
“[The Board of Elections has] bent over backward,” Nash said. “They’ve done an amazing job offering to come to Longview to … set up tables before lunches just to make sure that people have the opportunity [to register].”
For the 2024 general election, Longview is the main polling location for South Hill, meaning that Longview residents will have an easier time casting their votes because they will no longer have to travel to a different location. Nash said both the residents and staff at Longview are excited for the opportunity.
“We received a call from the Board of Elections asking … to have a discussion about Longview being a polling place,” Nash said. “In talking with staff and residents, there was very positive feedback. … We are happy to be able to do it.”
Unhoused voters
The most recent available data on how many adults experiencing homelessness turn out to vote each year is from 2012, and there is no newer data on this topic currently available. Between the months of May and September, there are approximately 60 people experiencing unsheltered homelessness in Tompkins County.
Simone Gatson, housing specialist and coordinated entry lead at Continuum of Care, said via email that there is no existing voter advocacy group for people experiencing homelessness in Tompkins County.
“Creating, funding and implementing a program to help unhoused people to vote has not come up as a priority for the people with lived experience we engage with,” Gatson said via email. “People are struggling with their day-to-day survival and ability to meet their basic needs of food, water, sanitation, and shelter with dignity. We lack the programs and funding locally to support these basic needs, so expanding access to meet that need is our primary focus.”
Gatson also said the Continuum of Care would support a program to help unhoused people vote if there was access to necessary resources like funding, staffing and programming.
People experiencing homelessness can register to vote in New York state by listing a nearby shelter, religious center or P.O. box as their mailing address and indicating a street corner or park as their residence instead of a traditional home address. These descriptions cannot be used as mailing addresses, but the same address can be used for both a home and mailing address if it is for a community building like a shelter or religious center.
Student voters
In the 2020 general election, 55% of voters ages 18–29 turned out to cast a vote. This is the highest recorded percentage for the age group since 1972. Of all the youth who voted in the 2020 general election, about 70% did so either through mail-in voting or early in-person voting.
This year, the polling location for Ithaca College students who list the college as their residence when registering to vote is at Longview. The college’s Voter Registration Task Force is working to improve student access to the location by implementing a van system that will allow faculty and staff volunteers to drive students to and from Longview from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Nov. 5.
Sihaya Moraleda, assistant director in the Office of Access, Opportunity & Achievement at Ithaca College, said she volunteered to drive students to and from Longview as a way to give back to the community.
“I’ve worked with a lot of students on campus who don’t have their own transportation, so I didn’t want … anything to be a barrier for them to vote,” Moraleda said.
Ellie Fulmer, associate professor in the Department of Education and co-director of the Center for Faculty Excellence, said she volunteered to be a driver because she thinks it is important to increase accessibility for student voters.
“As the education department, we sent out a reminder to all of our students … to register to vote,” Fulmer said. “Part of the messaging … that we sent to students is just to encourage a demographic who historically has had less voting representation than other groups.”
Sally Grubb, co-president and chair of the voter services committee of the League of Women Voters of Tompkins County, said voters of all ages should exercise their right to vote even if they worry that it will not have a large impact. She said that if enough people come together to vote for a person or cause, their votes will have more impact than they realize.
“If you don’t shout loud enough, people can’t hear you,” Grubb said. “If six people get together and push for something, they can make a difference. If 20 people get together and push for something, they’ll make more difference.”
