Information for Disabled Voters

League of Women Voters^®
of Mississippi, Inc.

Getting Your Ballot. Voting Machines. Personal Voting Assistance. Curbside Voting.

Getting Your Ballot

A Person with a Permanent Disability can register to be put on the voter disabled list and will automatically be sent a absentee ballot. You must get a signed statement from your doctor stating that you are permanently disabled to qualify. For further information, contact the Secretary of State's Election Hotline at 1-800-829-6786. You may also find information and support at Disability Rights Mississippi at 1-800-772-4057.

Voting Machines

Some new voting machines have features to assist voters with visual impairments:

Voters with blindness or severe visual impairments may navigate through the entire ballot without assistance, in privacy, using voice-guidance prompts.
Voters with limited vision may use a magnification feature enabling them to vote unassisted in a clear and comfortable manner in privacy.

Personal Voting Assistance

Any voter can ask for personal assistance who:

is blind: or,
is physically disabled;or,
cannot read or cannot write.

No other reasons will be considered valid.
To get assistance, a voter must:

tell the managers she or he needs help to mark ballot:
state one of the above reasons why help is needed: and
pick someone to help them.

The voter can have anyone help mark his ballot, except:

his or her employer or an employer's representative; or,
a representative of any union of which she or he is a member.

Curbside Voting Assistance

Persons with disabilities have the right to vote curbside with the assistance of an election manager. If you are physically disabled and are unable to enter the polling place, ask the election manager to have the voting machine brought to your vehicle to vote.
Note: Not all of the new voting machines can be taken to the car of a voter with a disability.

Comments, suggestions, questions? Contact our webmaster. Last revised: January 22, 2012 21:26 PST.