The Locked Door
On Election Day, November 2025, one of our observers found a polling place in Detroit with the accessible entrance locked from the outside. The accessible entrance existed on paper, it was on a compliance checklist somewhere. But a disabled voter had no way to enter without announcing their disability and waiting for help.
That’s not accessible voting. In fact, it’s quite the opposite.
In 2025, Detroit Disability Power (DDP) assessed over 400 polling places across 45 jurisdictions during three elections. Only 10 percent of Election Day sites met the basic accessibility standards required by law: accessible parking and pathways, an accessible entrance, a fully functional Voter Assist Terminal (VAT), and a wheelchair-height voting booth. Meeting these standards is essential for ensuring voters with disabilities can exercise their freedom to vote.
The most common failure point was the Voter Assist Terminal — and the issues were alarmingly simple to fix. Issues like VAT positioning that didn’t ensure a voter’s secrecy, headphones and controllers that were not plugged in and ready to use, and VAT’s placed so close to other barriers that a wheelchair user couldn’t position themselves to use the device. None of these are structural barriers. None of these are budget problems. They are simply preparation oversights that were entirely preventable.
Nearly one in three of Michigan’s voting-age adults have a disability. Disabled voters are three times more likely than non-disabled voters to report difficulties voting. If disabled voters turned out at the same rate as non-disabled voters, approximately two million more people would be voting in our elections. These barriers have real consequences: we documented a voter in Detroit who left without knowing their vote was counted due to election workers being unclear about processes and equipment. Not only is this unfair to the voter, this is not how our elections are supposed to function.
Michigan has more than 1,600 election jurisdictions (more than almost any other state) with each independently responsible for poll worker training and accessibility compliance. Most clerks operate on departmental budgets with no capital improvement funds. There is no statewide training standard and no mechanism for the state to track whether accessible voting equipment is even being used. This is a system problem, not a people problem, and it requires a system-level response.
The path forward is not mysterious, many polling places failed on only one measure, so targeted fixes could more than triple the fully accessible total. A lot of these fixes cost nothing: plug in the headphones, unlock the accessible entrance, set up the wheelchair-height booth before voters arrive. Beyond quick fixes, we’re calling for three things: statewide standardized poll worker training that includes hands-on VAT practice; dedicated state funding for local accessibility improvements; and legislation requiring municipalities to report VAT usage to the Michigan Department of State. You cannot improve what you cannot measure.
We know progress is possible, and we have seen it in Dearborn. Dearborn’s polling place accessibility jumped from six percent to thirty percent in just one year. That drastic improvement came from decisions made by the clerk, their staff, and election workers across the city, specifically around preparation and training. Dearborn shows us what is possible, and we are confident more cities can join them in this progress.
The barriers in this report, a locked entrance, unplugged headphones, a booth still in storage at poll opening, are not acceptable in a democracy that guarantees every citizen the freedom to vote. Michigan’s disabled voters have been patient. They have navigated these failures, voted when they could, and been turned away in ways that left no formal record. That has to change.
The law is clear, the barriers are documented, and the fixes are available. The only thing missing is the will to act. As citizens, we can push our clerks and legislators to do better. Ask your clerk about their plans to ensure disabled voters are able to successfully cast their ballot. Contact your local elected officials and state legislators demanding they provide funding to fix the parking lots, sidewalks, and entrances that are making it harder for disabled people in our communities to show up and vote. Collectively, we can push clerks and elected officials to act.
Michigan voters voted to enshrine the freedom to vote in the Michigan Constitution. That right shouldn’t be denied to those with disabilities because our polling places are inaccessible. Until every polling place is fully accessible, DDP will keep auditing. We will keep reporting. And we will keep showing up — because every voter deserves to walk, or roll, through a door that’s actually open.
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Eric Welsby is the Advocacy Director at Detroit Disability Power. Kenia Flores is the Voting Access and Election Protection Fellow at Detroit Disability Power. The full 2025 Poll Accessibility Audit Report is available at detroitdisabilitypower.org/pollaudit.
Detroit Disability Power is a project fiscally sponsored by Michigan Disability Rights Coalition.
