{"id":30798,"date":"2023-03-05T02:06:34","date_gmt":"2023-03-05T07:06:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=30798"},"modified":"2023-03-05T02:06:39","modified_gmt":"2023-03-05T07:06:39","slug":"new-mail-in-voting-rules-worry-some-with-disabilities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2023\/03\/05\/new-mail-in-voting-rules-worry-some-with-disabilities\/","title":{"rendered":"New mail-in voting rules worry some with disabilities"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 2021, the Florida Legislature made changes to mail-in voting, meaning residents will now have to request a mail-in ballot for each election cycle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Election officials say this could create a lot of confusion across the state and that some might expect to just get their ballot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Many have been voicing their concerns about the changes, including Disability Rights Florida.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Elvia Babis is a public analyst with the organization and worries about what this means for voters with disabilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">She has concerns that some won&#8217;t be able to navigate online or be able to use a computer. Another person with the organization, Kyle Romano, says he too worries about the changes.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" src=\"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/29c3076a-8cc1-469b-897b-61c9e6dacb91_1140x641-1-1024x576.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-30800\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/29c3076a-8cc1-469b-897b-61c9e6dacb91_1140x641-1-1024x576.png 1024w, https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/29c3076a-8cc1-469b-897b-61c9e6dacb91_1140x641-1-300x169.png 300w, https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/29c3076a-8cc1-469b-897b-61c9e6dacb91_1140x641-1-768x432.png 768w, https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/29c3076a-8cc1-469b-897b-61c9e6dacb91_1140x641-1.png 1140w\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Kyle Romano<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Romano is a quad amputee, losing his arms&nbsp;and legs after contracting meningitis when he was just over one year old.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He only knows life without his limbs but that doesn&#8217;t stop him from living his life to the fullest. He has played video games professionally, can type up to 30 words a minute, can drive himself around and even works at a custom mobility business that helps build custom wheel chairs and rig up vehicles to help those with disabilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He also advocates at the state Capitol. He says he has dedicated his life to help others within his community and to give them a voice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;Disabled people have to have access to vote like anybody else does,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In 2021, the Florida Legislature made changes to mail-in voting, meaning residents will now have to request a mail-in ballot for each election cycle. Election officials say this could create&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30799,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[14],"tags":[4680],"class_list":["post-30798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-new-mail-in-voting-rules-worry-some-with-disabilities"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30798"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30798\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}