From getting to polls to marking an X, voters with disabilities face extra hurdles [Video]

For some people, marking an X on a ballot is as simple as walking into a polling station and grabbing a pencil. But Delynne Bortis says Elections Saskatchewan has to consider challenges facing voters with disabilities — from physical accessibility of polling stations to making sure their vote is legible.

“When you don’t have grip and you don’t have the strength to push down to get your ballot read very well, that has been one of my biggest conundrums … larger grip pencils, clipboards, trying to hold those little ballot slips,” said Bortis, who sustained a spinal cord injury in a vehicle accident when she was a teenager.

Bortis is a long-time staff member of Spinal Cord Injury Saskatchewan and recently became the organization’s executive director.