The ADA does not apply to religious organizations, which account for 20% of all polling stations in the United States.
In the United States, spiritual establishments are free from the ADA, accounting for 20 % of all polling places. In the United States, spiritual establishments are free from the ADA, accounting for 20 % of all polling places.
The ADA does not apply to religious organizations, which account for 20% of all polling stations in the United States.
Churches are exempt from following the access mandates of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).. . Yeah, I know that sucks. There’s no reason why churches shouldn’t have to obey that law, just like everybody else. Some activists have made it their mission to persuade the leaders of houses of worship to make their churches accessible anyway. I wish them luck, but I’ve never been inclined to do much more than that to support their efforts.. . I didn’t think this was a very important issue because I don’t really care if my local churches are accessible or not. I stopped going to church many decades ago, so I’m actually glad to have inaccessibility as an excuse for staying away. It’s like boycotting a product I would never buy anyway—even if the manufacturer immediately gives in to all the demands, I’m still not going to buy it.. . But I’ve changed my mind. Recently, some people have pointed out that the inaccessibility of churches is a voter suppression issue. That’s because, according to Christianity Today, 20 percent of the more than 60,000 polling places in the United States are in churches. Thirteen states had 25 percent or more of their polling places located in churches for the 2022 election. And if any of those polling places are located in an inaccessible church, or in an inaccessible area of the church building (such as the basement), then that polling place is also inaccessible.. . If you have a disability and your polling place is in a church, you can’t be confident that it will be accessible.. . So if you have a disability and your polling place is in a church, you can’t be confident that it will be accessible. If that’s the case and you still want to vote, you better vote in advance via absentee or whatever method is available. When you consider all of the recent moves in state legislatures to make it harder for people in some states to vote in any manner other than in person on election day, you can see why some people with disabilities find trying to vote to be a daunting task.. . This is not an unintended consequence of voter suppression efforts; it’s an unintended benefit. The whole point of all of the voter crackdowns is to discourage Black people, and those who aren’t likely to vote for Republicans, from voting. It has nothing to do with combating voter fraud. If the forces behind these efforts can snag some disabled voters in the same broad dragnet, that’s all the better for them.. . So if you are trying to make it difficult to vote, here’s a tip: Coordinate with the churches. Make the ADA work in your favor. Try to get as many polling places as you can located in inaccessible churches. That way, you can stop even more disabled people from voting, too.
