The voting rate of persons with disabilities is approximately twenty percentage points lower than that of citizens without disabilities (No Right is More Precious, 2004). People with disabilities may have difficulty with the voting process due to barriers of attitude, discrimination, physical accessibility, and voting equipment. On October 29, 2000, President George W. Bush signed the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) to address these barriers.

The North Dakota Center for Persons with Disabilities (NDCPD) has recieved funding for a HAVA Education Grant from the ND Secretary of State's Office. The purpose of this projet is to:

• Develop and implement a state-wide educational campaign on the ND voting process (e.g. face-to-face traniings, web-based distance education, etc.)
• Provide materials and resources to teach people with disabilities about ND's voting process (e.g. pictorial instructions, posters, website links, lesson plans, etc.)
• Offer technical assistance and support to voting consumers and disability service providers
• Conduct training on accessible voting machines

For specific information about pproject activites and resourceds, click on the menu links on the left hand side.