Election Assistance Commission (EAC)
Pat Leahy, Senior Advisor, EAC

•	In 2009 and 2010, Congress appropriated $8M to the EAC for the development of a grant program focused on accessible voting.
•	The EAC awarded three grants:
–	Clemson University Coalition
–	Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF)
–	The Military Heroes Grant to ITIF
•	The grantees have produced approximately 45 research and development solutions for helping voters with disabilities.
–	Many of these results involve poll worker training

•	15.6 million people with disabilities voted in the November 2012 election
•	The voter turnout rate of people with disabilities was 5.7 percentage points lower than that of people without disabilities. There would be 3 million more voters with disabilities if they voted at the same rate as people without disabilities.
•	Almost one-third (30.1%) of voters with disabilities reported difficulty in voting at a polling place in 2012, compared to 8.4% of voters without disabilities.
•	People with disabilities were just as likely as those without disabilities to say they were treated respectfully by election officials.