She could not vote because she was in a wheelchair. The Ombudsman writes to Rafał Trzaskowski on the matter

She was unable to vote in the election because the location of her election commission was changed, and the new location was not accessible to people with disabilities. Before the change, the PEC appropriate to her residence was located in an architecturally accessible premises.

Between the local elections (April 7, 2024) and the elections to the European Parliament (June 9, 2024), the seat of the PEC to which the applicant was assigned changed - something she was unaware of. On election day, after she learned of this change, she went to the PEC No. 709 to which she was assigned. On the spot, it turned out that the polling place was on level -1 and there was no way to reach it other than by narrow stairs.

The applicant, for the sake of her safety and that of her daughter, did not agree to her being removed to vote, nor to her being assisted by the Police and having the ballot placed in the ballot box by committee. In the end, the applicant was unable to vote, and she obtained a certificate confirming the denial of the ballot due to the lack of accessibility of the premises for people with disabilities.

In her correspondence to the RPO, the citizen stresses that the situation came as a surprise to her, since she has lived at the same address for several years and the polling places where she has voted so far have been architecturally accessible. She pointed out that it is difficult to understand for what reasons a polling place with such significant architectural barriers was decided upon when designating the new location, despite the fact that the neighborhood is inhabited by, among others, many parents with small children, for whom casting a vote with a child in a stroller could also prove impossible or significantly difficult.

The applicant also points out that the issuance of a certificate of inability to vote due to the lack of accessibility of the premises for people with disabilities did not solve the problem, as she did not have the opportunity to go with her to another accessible premises to cast her vote there.

According to Article 29 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, public authorities are obliged to guarantee the political rights of persons with disabilities and the opportunity to exercise them on an equal basis with others, including ensuring that they can effectively and fully participate in political and public life, directly or through freely elected representatives, including the right and opportunity to exercise active and passive electoral rights. The conclusions of the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities with regard to Poland's application of the Convention explicitly point to the need to ensure that all polling places and voting procedures are accessible to persons with disabilities. These recommendations coincide with the ROP's repeatedly stated position.

Therefore, Deputy ROP Valeri Vachev is asking Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski for an explanation, in particular, to indicate the criteria for evaluating the premises in terms of the possibility of establishing polling stations in them, as well as what motivated the establishment of the premises of District Election Commission No. 709 in Warsaw in the building on level -1 of the Public Library.

The Ombudsman is also interested in how residents were informed about the change of polling place location, and whether the information indicated that the new location is not adapted to the needs of people with disabilities.

Source: RPO