Madison - Mayor Dave Cieslewicz said today that the City of Madison is working to ensure accessibility at its polling places for Tuesday's elections. The City is training poll workers on accessibility issues and will be the first municipality in the state to pilot the Government Accountability Board's revised Polling Place Accessibility Survey.

Each polling place has an "accessibility checklist" that poll workers can refer to, in order to ensure that their location is fully accessible. On Election Day, Disability Rights and Services Program Coordinator Angela Bennett from the Department of Civil Rights and members of the City Clerk's new Quality Assurance Teams will be visiting all polling places to monitor and check their level of accessibility.

"Madison is taking the lead in ensuring that all of our polling places are accessible to all of our voters," said Mayor Dave Cieslewicz. "We are making sure poll workers have the information they need to ensure accessibility at the polls. In addition, we are working closely with the state to test and refine their Polling Place Accessibility Survey, which will ultimately be used by municipalities across the state."

The City has put accessibility on the agenda for its poll worker training sessions for the past three elections, led by Angela Bennett from the Department of Civil Rights. A full training session was also dedicated to proper use of the Automark voting machine, which can be used by persons with disabilities to assist in marking the ballot.