Subject: Fwd: New Rule Prohibits Voters In Miami-Dade County From Using The Restroom, No Matter How Long The Line
From: Cheryl Mills <[email-masked]>
To: Robby Mook <[email-masked]>, "[email-masked]" <[email-masked]>, John Podesta <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 10 Apr 2014 13:47:28 -0400

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Nora Toiv <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, Apr 10, 2014 at 1:44 PM
Subject: New Rule Prohibits Voters In Miami-Dade County From Using The
Restroom, No Matter How Long The Line
To: Cheryl Mills <[email-masked]>

New Rule Prohibits Voters In Miami-Dade County From Using The Restroom, No
Matter How Long The
Line<http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2014/04/10/3425252/new-rule-prohibits-voters-in-miami-dade-county-from-using-the-restroom-no-matter-how-long-the-line/>

BY NICOLE FLATOW
<http://thinkprogress.org/person/nflatow/><https://twitter.com/intent/user?screen_name=NicFlatow>ON
APRIL
10, 2014 AT 12:17 PM

"*New Rule Prohibits Voters In Miami-Dade County From Using The Restroom,
No Matter How Long The Line*"

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South Floridians stand in line during the last day of early voting in
Miami, Saturday, Nov. 3, 2012.

CREDIT: AP PHOTO/ALAN DIAZ

During the 2012 presidential election, voters reportedly waited on
line for upwards
of six hours<http://miami.cbslocal.com/2012/11/03/last-day-of-early-voting-opens-in-miami-dade/>.
That wait alone is enough to deter would-be
voters<http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/01/23/1486311/long-voting-lines-drove-away-at-least-201k-florida-voters-study-finds/>
from
going to the polls. But now residents in Florida's most populous county
will have another disincentive: they won't be able to go to the bathroom.

Earlier this year, the Miami-Dade County Elections Department quietly
implemented a policy to close the bathrooms at all polling facilities,
according to disability rights lawyer Marc Dubin. Dubin said the policy
change was in "direct response" to an inquiry to the Elections Department
about whether they had assessed accessibility of polling place bathrooms to
those with disabilities.

"I was expecting them to say either yes we have or yes we will," Dubin said.

Instead, he received a written
response<http://www.soflacil.org/Default.aspx?pageId=1719171&mode=PostView&bmi=1476546>
announcing
that the county would close all restrooms at polling places "to ensure that
individuals with disabilities are not treated unfairly," a January email
stated. "[T]he Department's policy is not to permit access to restrooms at
polling sites on election days," Assistant County Attorney Shanika Graves
said in a Feb. 14
email<http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/broward/broward-politics-blog/sfl-voters-banned-from-using-restrooms-20140409,0,1869709.story>.
Elections Department officials did not immediately respond to ThinkProgress
inquiries.

Dubin said he was "shocked" at this response, and not just because it
suppresses the vote for everybody. The Americans with Disabilities Act also
requires entities to make "reasonable accommodations" to those with
disabilities. For those with a number of conditions, including diabetics
and those taking diuretics, closing the restroom will make standing in that
line impossible, and thus discriminate against disabled voters.

But those with disabilities are not the only ones who would suffer
disproportionately from this policy. A Massachusetts Institute of
Technology analysis found that blacks and Hispanicswaited almost twice as
long<http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/02/05/1542061/blacks-hispanics-waited-almost-twice-as-long-to-vote-as-whites-in-2012/>
to
vote as whites in the 2012 presidential election. Another analysis found
that this "time tax" also impacted young
voters<http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/11/18/2961611/time-tax-voting/>.
And this would be one of a number Florida voter suppression
policies<http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/05/23/2052401/florida-governor-signs-election-reform-bill-reversing-his-own-voter-suppression-laws/>
that
have a particular impact on the elderly.

The state's next-most populous counties, Broward and Palm Beach, told the
Sun Sentinel<http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/broward/broward-politics-blog/sfl-voters-banned-from-using-restrooms-20140409,0,1869709.story>they
would not implement this policy.