Among the hundreds of critical comments that landed in Utah Republican Party leaders’ inboxes about standing in long lines, a confusing registration process and having just a few hours to cast a ballot for the GOP’s presidential nominee were allegations from voters with disabilities that they were disenfranchised by the structure of the March caucus night.
“I hope they never do this again,” one registered Republican wrote. “My health condition made it impossible to attend and your rules essentially eliminated my vote.”
More than one in four Utahns report having a disability — including limited mobility, sight or hearing, and mental health disabilities like post-traumatic stress disorder or anxiety — according to the Utah Department of Health and Human Services.
Fewer than one in 10 registered Republicans in the state voted in the presidential preference poll on Super Tuesday. For context, the less competitive Democratic presidential primary election in Utah, overseen by the lieutenant governor’s office and administered by county clerks, had a turnout of nearly 30%.
Several months prior, the state party decided to forego a presidential primary administered by Utah and county governments in favor of a party-run poll at local caucus meetings.
Turnout among voters with disabilities was likely limited due to reported “physical barriers to difficulties participating because of the structure and length of the meeting, and failure by meeting organizers to provide requested accommodations,” according to a review by Utah’s Disability Law Center.
The nonprofit law firm is tasked by the governor’s office with advocating for election practices that ensure voting is accessible to people with disabilities and offering education on how to improve access. The effort is part of the Help America Vote Act of 2002 and, this year, received over $140,000 from the federal government toward that effort.
The organization’s public affairs attorney, Nate Crippes, told The Salt Lake Tribune that the report was provided to state Republican Party leaders when the Disability Law Center completed it “a few months ago.” Utah Republican Party leaders have not responded to the nonprofit, Crippes added.
Robert Axson, the chair of the Utah Republican Party, said he feels the report is “an incomplete picture and an incomplete story,” and added that voters could have reached out to the party to ask for accommodations.
“It’s impossible to solve an issue for somebody who has never talked to you,” Axson said. “And so if there was somebody who wanted to complain and complained to them after the fact, why did that individual never reach out to us?”
Many of the caucus meetings were held in schools, or other public buildings, Axson pointed out. He believes the onus for providing enough accessible parking, doors, and ramps to enter buildings sits with state and local government.
“If they have issues with the accommodation of those schools, then they need to take it to the school districts or the state school board, and there’s other ways to address those issues,” said Axson, adding that he’s open to having a conversation about providing additional assistance in the future. “But let’s have those sincere conversations, looking for best outcomes, rather than portraying some sort of report as though it’s an indictment of ill will and everything else.”
‘We were cheated out of our vote’
Caucus meetings were not just held in government-owned buildings, sometimes even convening in private homes, and the problems the Disability Law Center observed extended beyond barriers for people with limited mobility.
Another GOP voter, emailing on behalf of his wife, said, “It is my belief that many good Republican voters did not get a fair chance to cast a vote. My wife as well as many other people are handicapped and this method made it very difficult for them and confusing even to do an absentee ballot.”
One couple wrote in an email that they registered to participate through the party’s absentee balloting process, “but couldn’t find anyone to take our ballots.” The message continued, “I am 75 and my wife is 73. We both have health issues and feel that we were cheated out of our vote.”
Those comments were supposed to be included in a legislative hearing scheduled for August about problems Utah Republicans encountered when trying to vote on Super Tuesday. The Tribune previously reported that the topic was pulled from the agenda after pressure from party bosses.
(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) Caucusgoers sign in ahead of the presidential primary caucuses at Riverton High School in Riverton on Tuesday, March 5, 2024.
Axson said he didn’t think the hearing would have been fair because the Utah Republican Party was not asked to present on the topic.
Lawmakers would have heard a presentation on the Disability Law Center report in that meeting. One of the co-chairs of the Legislature’s Government Operations Interim Committee, West Valley City Republican Sen. Daniel Thatcher, said he plans to hold the discussion during this month’s interim gathering.
Under the Americans with Disabilities Act, all levels of government are required to ensure elections are accessible to people with disabilities. And, while the law isn’t as clear when it comes to the accessibility of party-run elections, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Smith v. Allwright in 1944 that states have a responsibility to guarantee that primary elections managed by parties do not have race-based exclusions.
“Poorly planned caucus meetings run the risk of defying these important laws,” the report says.
What happened on caucus night
“I went to East High where they had the presidential caucus, and to be honest, it was kind of a mess,” Crippes told The Tribune.
He was among a team of volunteers — including students, lawmakers, parents and other stakeholders, according to the report — that evaluated the accessibility of caucus locations in eight counties. The meetings were held in schools, municipal buildings, parks, hotels and private residences.
“Parking was kind of confusing for where you would park, and then once you did park where it was available, there was no signage directing where to go. You would have had a very hard time [if you had a disability],” Crippes said.
He “got lost and confused” himself, he added, and ended up on the wrong floor of the high school while wandering the halls looking for where voters were supposed to check in.
“It was not well designed,” Crippes said. “And then even when I got to the right place, you could see the lines were incredibly long.”
On the evening of Super Tuesday, Axson told reporters that part of the reason for extended queues was that some precincts were “overwhelmed” with the number of people who came out to vote. There were also a number of volunteers who didn’t show up, Axson said, and the lack of help and information in those precincts caused the situation to get “out of control.”
(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) People wait to sign in during the presidential primary caucuses at Riverton High School in Riverton on Tuesday, March 5, 2024.
Crippes noticed that, too, saying there were few volunteers who could help give directions on how to vote, microphones were not being used to assist people with limited hearing and the paper ballots used made it difficult for people with visual disabilities to vote.
The review says that after receiving assessments from all of the volunteers, although there were reports of positive interactions with some caucus workers, Disability Law Center “found that none of the caucus meetings visited satisfied a simple list of standards for physical access and basic accommodations.”
More than three-quarters of the law center’s volunteers said there was no information posted as to how voters with disabilities could request accommodations, and another 15% were “unsure.” And more than half said they didn’t observe options for people with visual disabilities, or those unable to read or mark a paper ballot, to privately cast their vote.
A quarter of locations visited reportedly did not have any accessible parking, and where there was parking designated for people with disabilities, just 19% met the standards for accessible parking.
“With facilities and accommodations failing to meet their needs, voters faced unsafe conditions, were denied equal access to information, or were unable to fully participate in selecting party leaders and/or cast their presidential preference vote,” the report reads.
Questions about whether caucus meetings’ failure to be inclusive of voters with disabilities violates federal law have been raised elsewhere.
After the 2020 presidential election, a paper published in the Texas Journal on Civil Liberties & Civil Rights rejected claims from the Republican and Democratic parties that voters with disabilities have no legal recourse when they face barriers to caucusing. The paper concluded the Americans with Disabilities Act bars discrimination at party-run caucus meetings.
The Disability Law Center’s report provides recommendations for how the party could better run caucus meetings in the future, including considering a traditional primary election in which voters can participate by mail.
The report continued, “These obstacles highlighted systemic issues within the caucus voting infrastructure, underscoring the imperative for reforms to ensure equitable access to the democratic process for all citizens.”