On May 14, the Second Circuit issued an opinion in Disabled in Action v Board of Elections in the City of New York, 12-4412. The opinion upholds a decision of the U.S. District Court that the city must do more to help disabled individuals to cast a vote. It says that 80% of polling places in New York city have significant barriers to access, especially relating to wheelchair users and blind voters.

The city says it has a program to transfer disabled voters out of the precincts with problems, to other precincts. However, the decision says, “It is unclear how the Board of Elections, let alone an individual voter, would know ten days prior to an election that a particular poll site is inaccessible.”

The federal government had intervened in this case on the side of the plaintiffs. Here is the opinion.