November 8, 2022•Advocacy Matters
Election Day Updates
Election Day Updates
Disability Matters with Joyce Bender
Tuesday, November 8, 2022
#AdvocacyMatters
Election Day Updates
Today is Tuesday, November 8, 2022, the mid-term General Election.
We are at 2 o’clock on the east coast. In Pennsylvania, polls close at 8:00 p.m. Your state poll closure hours may vary. In Alaska, polls close at 1:00 a.m. eastern time.
According to Pennsylvania Secretary of State Leigh Chapman, 1,437,011 million Pennsylvanians requested a mail-in or absentee ballot for the mid-term election. As of November 3rd, 1,017,019 have been returned. That is a return rate of 71%. 889,815 were mail-in ballots. 127,204 were absentee ballots.
Early problems in Pennsylvania seemed to be a handful of polling places (less than 10 out of 9,000 polling places) that did not have all the tools necessary to open at 7:00 am. County officials were working to resolve those issues and get those polling places open as soon as possible.
If you have not turned in your mail-in ballot or voted early, how can you vote today?
Drop Box (with or without a designated agent)
If you have still have your mail-in ballot, please do not mail it today. Your ballot will not arrive at your County Elections office by the end of the day. Please take your ballot to your designated drop box. You can also take your entire mail-in ballot package to your polling place, and you will be provided with a provisional ballot to vote.
If you have a disability and cannot make it to the drop box, you can designate a person to take your ballot to the drop box. We have a link to the form on our website.
Vote in Person
Get in line at your polling place. How can you find your polling place? In Pennsylvania, we have a link to www.votespa.org. There you can enter your address and you can find the exact location of your polling place.
If you are in line by 8:00 pm, you will be permitted to vote.
If you find barriers to vote related to your disability, call or text Election Protection at 866-OUR-VOTE.
If you want to resolve them on your own, ask to speak to the Elections Judge. If the door to the accessible entrance is not open, ask them to open the door. If there is no designated accessible parking space, ask them to create a space.
Emergency Absentee Ballot
https://www.votespa.com/Voting-in-PA/Pages/Mail-and-Absentee-Ballot.aspx
Most states have a system in place to accommodate emergency situations such as an unexpected hospital stay or illness. In Pennsylvania, it is called an Emergency Absentee Ballot. The law in your state will be different.
There is a system you must navigate to use this emergency ballot. In Pennsylvania, call Election Protection to be guided through the process.
Intimidation and Harassment
If you believe that poll watchers or poll workers have crossed the line into harassment and intimidation, call Election Protection immediately. DRP is part of Election Protection, and we will review each case separately with other lawyers to determine the next steps. But you must call immediately and report the incident.
#AdvocacyMatters
Get out and vote today.
If you face any challenges at the polls, call Election Protection.
We also have a list of Election Protection and other national voter protection hotlines for people who need text, ASL (American Sign Language), and many other languages. Go to our website (disabilityrightspa.org) now and click on the #AdvocacyMatters show for today.
Every vote counts.
Hotlines
Secretary of State Elections Department or to get contact information for your County Board of Election. 1-877-VOTESPA
Election Protection. 866-OUR-VOTE
Spanish Election Protection. 888-VE-Y-VOTA
Mandarin, Cantonese, Vietnamese, Korean, Bengali, Hindi, Urdu, Tagalog, or English Election Protection. 888-API-VOTE
Arabic Election Protection. 844-YALLA-US
National Association of the Deaf ASL Voter Hotline. 1-301-818-8683
National Federal for the Blind. 1-877-632-1940
Find your Protection and Advocacy agency in your state go to www.ndrn.org