D.C. disability voting monitor faces defunding under OMB rule

A $141,043 federal grant that funds the District's only accessibility monitor for vote centers is at risk under a proposed White House rule.

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) would prohibit federal award money from being used for voter registration drives or "related activities," ProPublica first reported on Tuesday, Sept. 29.

The restriction would not take effect before the Nov. 3 midterm election. But Stanford University law professor Rabia Belt, who specializes in disability and citizenship, told ProPublica the vague language could cause nonprofits to curtail voter outreach well before the 2028 presidential race.

During the 2024 D.C. primary, Disability Rights DC surveyed all 75 vote centers and 55 ballot drop boxes and found accessibility problems at 72% of the vote centers, the Washington Informer reported.

During the 2022 general election, the organization surveyed 87 of 90 voting centers and found problems at 71%. Those included missing signs, broken elevators, narrow doorways and inaccessible voting equipment.

Disability Rights DC, a program of University Legal Services, operates the District's Protection and Advocacy for Voting Access (PAVA) program. Federal records show University Legal Services received $141,043 for that work in fiscal year 2026.

The group is the District's only federally funded monitor of polling-place access for voters with disabilities. During a Ward 8 special election earlier in 2026, its staff visited 12 of 13 voting centers and made on-the-spot recommendations that election workers carried out while voters were still arriving, according to the Informer.

The D.C. Board of Elections has worked with Disability Rights DC and the D.C. Office of Disability Rights on accessibility surveys of voting locations. No public statement from the Board of Elections, the Office of Disability Rights or any D.C. Council member addressing the proposed rule's local impact appeared in public records as of Wednesday, Sept. 30.

Census-based D.C. government data show 10.9% of the District's civilian noninstitutionalized population has a disability. East of the Anacostia River, the rates climb to 15.9% in Ward 7 and 16.7% in Ward 8.

OMB Director Russell Vought has long opposed using federal money for voter registration. In a 2022 letter, Vought called a Biden administration executive order expanding voter registration a "power grab" that would boost turnout among Democratic supporters. Neither Vought nor OMB responded to ProPublica's questions about the proposed change, ProPublica reported.

The proposed rule was published in the Federal Register on May 29. The public comment period closed July 13, drawing 496,606 comments.

Samuel Bagenstos, a University of Michigan law professor and former OMB general counsel, told ProPublica the proposal raises questions about congressional authority. Congress created the PAVA grants through the Help America Vote Act of 2002 and has funded about $10 million annually for 57 Protection and Advocacy organizations nationwide.

"This is not even a surgical power grab. It's just a massive, across-the-board power grab," Bagenstos told ProPublica.

The Nov. 3 general election ballot in D.C. includes races for mayor, Council chairman, at-large and ward Council seats, attorney general and Delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives. The proposed rule would not take effect before that election, and Disability Rights DC's PAVA-funded monitoring is expected to continue through it.