County looks at precinct accessibility

By PAMELA BRUST
PARKERSBURG — Wood County election officials will be looking at ways to help make more of the county’s 85 voting precincts handicapped accessible.

Wood County Clerk Jamie Six said there are 35 precincts that county officials have deemed to be handicapped accessible. Six noted the early voting precinct is handicapped accessible and anyone with special needs who is registered in a non-accessible precinct can contact his office and be reassigned to a precinct, which is handicapped accessible for election day.

“We make sure they are placed in a precinct that has the same ballot type as the precinct they were originally registered in,” Six said.

If someone with special needs has to go to another precinct on election day their ballot can be challenged and the provisional ballot will be overruled and the vote allowed during the Board of Canvass, election officials said.

Ron Jalbert, local ADA (Americans With Disabilities Act) coordinator said the secretary of state is encouraging counties to take advantage of grant funding that can be used to assist in complying with accessibility requirements for voting precincts.

“There are 25 counties in West Virginia that have applied for funding to make precincts in their counties accessible. I have discussed this problem with Jamie (Six) in the past, and I am concerned that ultimately Wood County may be cited by federal officials for non-compliance. I would like to see the county take advantage of this grant funding that is available to help with compliance,” Jalbert said.

The grants are available as reimbursement funds, the county would have to come up with the money, then could be reimbursed through the grants.

Jalbert said some of the changes might just mean installation of a different type of door handle.

Commissioner Rick Modesitt noted while providing the upfront funding might not be a problem. “It seems to me, for some things, $10,000 wouldn’t go too far.”

“I think we need a plan,” commission President Bob Tebay noted.

Six said, “It can be overwhelming” trying to determine exactly what needs to be done in order to be completely compliant. He said he also has concerns about spending money to make improvements/changes in buildings that are not county-owned property.

“It’s very difficult in some cases to be completely compliant. For example, there has to be hard surface for a handicapped parking spot, there are regulations about drinking fountains and even trophy cases in schools and how far out they can extend, there are regulations about door handles, door widths, ramps. I’m not really comfortable with spending taxpayer’s money on what are in many cases privately owned properties,” Six said.

“While the majority of the polling places are in the schools, many are in businesses, churches, and the like. We used to have one in a private home at one time. We can meet with school board officials and school administrators and try to see what can be done. I have assigned an intern to assist as well,” Six noted. “But keep in mind, for instance, school principals have authority to move a precinct election day and that has happened. One time we had a handicapped accessible precinct moved onto a stage, making it non-accessible.”

Jalbert said he was willing to work with Six and the other officials to look at the most cost-efficient way to address the problems. He told the commissioners he would want to be paid for his services at a rate of $60 an hour.

“No offense to Ron, but I think we can address these problems without doing that,” Six said.

“What we have done may be Band-Aid approaches. We are willing to work with the school board and others to try and address this situation. I don’t know if the county maintenance department could handle some of these issues, we may have to get a contractor. We can see where dollars can be spent wisely, and see what can be done internally. If we do need to pay his (Ron Jalbert) fee, we could find out if it can be reimbursed through the grant funding,” Six said.

“Some of the grant funds Ron is referring to were used on county-owned buildings in other counties to make them compliant, in some cases on courthouses that are used for early voting,” Six said.

“Some senior citizens might also benefit from some of these changes as well,” said Commissioner Blair Couch.

The commissioners asked Six to explore the problem and report back with recommendations.