GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — For Patrick Parkes, who was born with cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair, getting around looks different than it does for most people.
Voting also looks a little different for Parkes.
He says electronic voting systems have helped to ensure that his voice is heard, but he still has a lot of questions.
"Are the polling stations even accessible to be able to access those stations to be able to fill out your ballot? Right? Are there curb cuts? Are there ramps? Are there accessible polling stations for folks who need to use the electronic entry points to be able to fill out their ballot?" asked Parkes.
He's also hoping that poll workers will know how to help all people vote. "Are the poll workers aware of, you know, how to treat someone with a disability equitably? And how to help them as they need to be assisted throughout, you know, their experience in the polling place?"
Kristen Kelling also says there's room for improvement when it comes to voting accessibility. Diagnosed with optic nerve hypoplasia, Kelling says she's been totally blind since birth.
Kelling says she faces challenges when voting at the polls.
"They do have an accessible voting machine called the Dominion. Challenge with that is, number one, it's not always easily understood in terms of the speech. Number two, it isn't something that, it doesn't seem that poll workers, or at least at the polling place I go to, seem to know a lot about," Kelling said.
There is an accessible absentee ballot available electronically for the blind, but even so, Kelling wishes it wasn't printer dependent.
"We cannot do an electronic return," she noted, "which in turn means I have to have somebody help me get the ballot into the envelope. And then I have to have somebody help me get it to where it needs to go."
For something as important as voting, this kind of help requires a lot of trust.
"Big issue that you run into is, I don't know if they're snooping it and looking at my ballot and trying to actually tamper with it," she says.
She would like to see Michigan allow for an electronic return of ballots. That way, she wouldn't have to rely on a printer or other people- something that would make life easier for her and for other voters who are blind.
When it comes to voting accessibility, language barriers become another concern. Hispanic and Latino communities also face challenges when trying to make their voices heard at the polls.
Holly Rea Clarkson, who serves as the Language and Workforce Development MGMT at Hispanic Center, says language services and accessibility are a huge issue.
"We still don't have any of the ballots translated in Spanish. A lot of people don't know that they can come into the polling place with their own interpreter, whether it be a family member or friend or a professional interpreter," said Clarkson.
Clarkson says that we have yet to reach 30% of the population in each county that requires clerks to translate all of the materials into another language.
"We are at 11%," she said. "Right now, approaching 12%. And so even though that is a large portion of the population, the clerks aren't legally required to offer that service. We've seen really great collaboration and emphasis on language accessibility with the City of Grand Rapids clerk. And so we have been working very closely with them to, to contract and recruit, recruit and contract bilingual poll workers and make sure they go through our interpreter training."
FOX 17 took some of these concerns about voting accessibility to the Grand Rapids City Clerk Joel Hondrop, who told us that they've been working to make sure translation services are available.
"Grand Rapids doesn't have the population enough to have ballots printed in different languages," Hondrop explained. "However, we're working in the state to get some of the ballots in precincts that have high Spanish speaking voters translated."
However, when it comes to Kristen Kelling's concerns about submitting absentee ballots electronically, he says that's up to the legislature.
"WE don't have it for military and overseas to return their ballots yet by electronics. So we haven't seen a move to that yet," Hondrop said.
Plus, they prefer paper-based ballots, so that they have a trail for recounts.
As for the Dominon voting machine, Hondrop admits it's not 100% perfect, but he says election workers are trained on how to use it.
"This voter system is much better than what it was. I don't know if there's a perfect marking system. But it does give voters an ability to mark their ballots," said Hondrop.
One thing that stood out- nearly everyone FOX 17 spoke to about voting challenges here in Grand Rapids said the county has been receptive of their needs, working with them to address the issues that they're seeing at the polls.
