In 2015, Disability Rights Ohio filed a lawsuit against Republican Secretary of State Jon Husted. The lawsuit alleged that blind individuals and individuals with certain disabilities did not have the equal opportunity to vote on their own through an absentee ballot. The lawsuit from 2015 alleged that absentee ballots were available only in paper forms which made the absentee process practically impossible for those who are blind or who may have other disabilities.
In 2016, U.S. District Judge George C. Smith ruled that while blind citizens in Ohio have been denied “meaningful access” to absentee voting, he did not accept the proposed solution by Disability Rights Ohio. Disability Rights Ohio proposed that the State of Ohio implement a sophisticated software system so that blind voters could cast their private votes. However, Judge Smith stated that there wasn’t enough time to implement the solution before last year’s general election. He also encouraged Disability Rights Ohio to continue to look for other options, including the possibility of “Braille ballots.”
