The Chicago Election Board has entered a settlement agreement after ten months of a joint effort with the U.S. Justice Department and Chicago-based Equip for Equality to evaluate the physical accessibility of polling places and Early Voting sites. The Board anticipates that hundreds of polling sites will need some forms of permanent or temporary modifications or to be re-located. Using newer standards under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the Department of Justice began examining polling places and Early Voting sites during the March 2016 Primary Election. Similar examinations have been launched in other major cities around the country and in downstate Illinois. “Equip for Equality worked closely with the Justice Department and the Board, and then recruited hundreds of attorneys from several corporations and law firms across Chicago to work pro bono on this project,” said Election Board Chairwoman Marisel A. Hernandez. “These ‘investigators’ completed training and were supplied with the tools to measure sidewalk cracks, curb cuts, ramp angles, interior and exterior doorway widths, the amount of pressure needed to open doors and other aspects of sites that might have one or more barriers that could impede the access for a blind voter or a voter in a wheelchair.” Under the terms of the Settlement Agreement, the Board will work with public and private property owners to bringing as many polling places as possible into compliance starting with the March 2018 Primary Election with the goal of 100 percent ADA compliance by the November 2018 General Election.