Last December RBGG with co-counsel Robert Rubin filed a federal lawsuit in the Northern District of California on behalf of California Council of the Blind and two individual plaintiffs against the County of San Mateo and the State of California challenging the unlawful and discriminatory exclusion of blind and visually impaired voters from the County of San Mateo’s absentee voting program. The San Mateo Journal reported a preliminary settlement in the case in an article on September 20, 2016, Blind voters to get more access: Legal deal allows visually impaired in county to vote remotely, privately.
RBGG’s Lisa Ells and Mike Nunez, along with Rubin, represented the plaintiffs. According to the article:
“A recent legal deal will make it easier for visually impaired voters in San Mateo County to privately participate in upcoming elections, said an attorney representing blind voters who sued alleging discrimination. Software designed to accommodate blind voters who seek to vote by mail will likely be fully available next year and the remote voting devices can be brought to the homes of those who request them to vote in the fall election, under an implementation agreement signed last week by a district court judge.
County officials agreed to work toward making the technology available in the wake of two blind Menlo Park residents James Gump and Lynda Johnson filing a lawsuit last year alleging they were not granted equal access to private absentee voting. Lisa Ells, an attorney representing Gump and Johnson, said she believed the agreement was a landmark step to assuring all local residents have adequate privacy when casting their ballots.”