FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 30, 2025
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION: Margaretta Kroeger, mkroeger@declasi.org
Disability Rights Delaware Finds Widespread ADA Parking Accessibility Violations at Polling Places; Accessibility Progress Made in Other Areas
Monitoring shows over 54% of polling sites violated ADA parking requirements, highlighting need for increased enforcement of accessible parking laws in Delaware
WILMINGTON, DE—Today, Disability Rights Delaware (“DRD”) of Community Legal Aid Society, Inc. (“CLASI”) has released a new report with findings from its most comprehensive polling place assessment to date, which surveyed over 90% of Delaware’s polling places and found that more than half violated accessible parking laws.
DRD poll monitors surveyed 258 of Delaware’s 284 polling places during the 2024 General Election for compliance with Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”) requirements meant to ensure that all voters with disabilities can access polling sites and exercise their fundamental right to vote.
Monitors assessed almost twice as many polling places in 2024 as they did during the 2022 election, offering an unprecedented overview of accessibility conditions statewide.
The report shows that 54% of polling places failed to meet ADA parking accessibility requirements, a significant increase from 30% of polling places that did not meet those requirements during the last election according to DRD’s 2022 General Election poll monitoring report.
“This finding is very disturbing but unfortunately not surprising to us because ADA parking compliance is a well-known problem in Delaware,” said Disability Rights Delaware Project Director Marissa Band. “Lack of accessible parking is a constant barrier for people with disabilities, and it significantly impedes their participation in community life—including equal access to voting in our state’s elections.”
“Disability Rights Delaware calls on the Department of Elections to address this problem,” continued Ms. Band. Significantly, the Delaware Legislature is considering a bill that would create enforcement mechanisms for accessible parking laws.
Accessible parking enforcement is the subject of House Substitute 2 for House Bill 48, legislation sponsored by Representative DeShanna Neal and Senator Nicole Poore which passed the Delaware House and is currently under consideration by the Senate. An informal, unpublished study conducted for the State Council for Persons with Disabilities found that approximately 65% of surveyed Delaware businesses failed to comply with at least one accessibility standard.
In addition to parking problems, the DRD poll monitoring report also found accessibility issues with exterior routes at polling sites, with the most common problems being failure to clearly mark accessible entrances and paths to them from parking areas. By contrast, DRD poll monitors found that interior routes were largely accessible during the 2024 election, with the most significant issues only occurring at 2-4% of sites statewide.
The report included qualitative feedback about voting experiences from poll monitors and voters with disabilities. Issues raised included entrances marked as accessible that were either locked or otherwise inaccessible, and poll workers’ lack of familiarity with the Universal Voting Console (UVC) equipment that provides a variety of accessibility features for voting machines, highlighting the need to improve training of poll workers around these issues.
The DRD report also specifically assessed conditions at 25 “priority” polling sites that were either used for the first time or improved by the Department of Elections to address accessibility concerns identified by DRD during the 2022 election, and to reduce congestion by increasing the overall number of sites. The report concludes that the 25 new or improved polling sites introduced by the Department of Elections in 2024 performed on par with, or slightly better than, polling places statewide. DRD commends the Department of Elections for replacing or improving these polling sites.
The report found some progress was made in improving exterior path and interior route accessibility issues such as uneven surfaces, entrance thresholds that are too high, and narrow door widths at these sites. However, parking accessibility and clear accessible route signage remained widespread issues.
In 2024, there were 48 people on the poll monitoring team, including DRD staff members and volunteers from the University of Delaware’s Access: Ability Scholars Program and Widener Delaware Law School, who were trained on ADA accessibility standards. On Election Day, the monitors took measurements and entered their findings into an online survey tool developed by DRD, based on the ADA Checklist for Polling Places for election officials. The survey tool guided the poll monitors from the parking entrance to the parking spaces, along the accessible exterior pathway, to the building entrance, and then to the interior pathway and voting area inside the building.
“We’re deeply grateful to our poll monitors and volunteers,” said DRD Voting Rights Advocate Nina Kegelman. “Their efforts made this the most comprehensive assessment of polling place accessibility yet, which is a crucial step toward ensuring equal access, dignity, and independence in voting for people with disabilities.”
View the full report and recommendations here.
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About Disability Rights Delaware of Community Legal Aid Society, Inc.:
Founded in 1946, the mission of Community Legal Aid Society, Inc. (“CLASI”) is to combat injustice through creative and persistent civil legal advocacy on behalf of vulnerable and underserved Delawareans. CLASI provides free legal representation to people with disabilities, people aged 60 or over, people with low incomes, and victims of crime and discrimination to help our clients obtain shelter, government benefits, educational services, medical services, orders of protection from abuse, legal immigration status, and other civil legal remedies. CLASI has offices in Wilmington, Dover, and Georgetown. To learn more, please visit: https://www.declasi.org/
CLASI’s Disability Rights Delaware (“DRD”) program, formerly known as the Disabilities Law Program, provides free legal representation to children and adults with physical and mental disabilities to protect them from abuse and neglect and to advocate for their legal rights in the community and facilities. DRD serves as Delaware’s designated Protection and Advocacy system for people with disabilities (“P&A”). Learn more about Disability Rights Delaware here: https://www.declasi.org/disabilities-law-program/
