Office of the Secretary of the State

Accommodations for Voters with Print Disabilities

The process and procedures for those who need accommodations for print disabilities are as follows:
  • The absentee ballot application has been updated to make it accessible by screen readers, and includes a check box to indicate that the voter requires a ballot emailed to them because of a print disability.
  • Once the town clerk receives this application with the specified box checked off, they will send out a ballot packet – containing the outer envelope and inner envelope - WITHOUT a paper ballot, directly to the voter.
  • The town clerk will notify the Office of the Secretary of the State that the voter needs an accessible ballot and will provide the voter’s email address.
  • The Office of the Secretary of the State will email an accessible ballot directly to the voter.
  • The voter will be able to read and fill out the ballot using their screen reader, print it out, and return it in the ballot packet that was sent to by the town clerk.
  • The voter MUST sign the inner envelope, and local election officials have been instructed to approve the inner envelopes that are signed, even if the signature is not in the correct spot.
  • Those ballots will be hand counted, as they will be printed on normal paper with normal ink and cannot be fed into the tabulator.