Voting Without Barriers? Causal Evidence on Polling Station Accessibility and Turnout Among People with Disabilities

Consistent evidence shows the existence of a disability turnout gap, meaning that people with disabilities vote at lower rates than those without disabilities. From a rational choice perspective, this gap can be partly explained by higher costs of participation. Following this logic, two main strategies have been adopted to increase turnout among this group: improving polling station accessibility and expanding convenience voting options. Existing research has focused on the latter, often relying on cross-national associational designs that are constrained by endogeneity. These studies generally find only modest associations between convenience measures and turnout of people with disabilities. This study advances the literature by examining polling station accessibility within a single-country and by combining associational and causal (difference-in-differences) methods. Using individual-level panel data from LISS Panel and polling station information from the Waar is mijn stemlokaal platform, I analyse how municipal polling station density and the share of accessible polling stations affect turnout among people with disabilities in Dutch municipalities. The findings will clarify whether improving accessibility effectively enhances electoral inclusion or whether persistent turnout gaps instead stem from deeper attitudinal barriers.