by Melanie Brunson
By the time you read this, the 2004 elections will be history. However, ACB’s fight to ensure that people who are blind and visually impaired have access to an independently cast, secret ballot will be ongoing. There will be much to do on the federal level to ensure that the Help America Vote Act is fully funded, and there will be much to do in each of your states to ensure that elections officials make both polling places and voting equipment accessible to people with disabilities, including people who are blind and visually impaired.
If our efforts are to be successful, both individual voters and state affiliates will need to stay in close contact with legislators, local election officials and members of the local media. The contact with local media is particularly important because there has been a flurry of negative publicity about the effectiveness of some of the voting equipment that is usable by people who are blind and visually impaired. Many of the allegations made about this equipment are based on information that is either out of date or incorrect. It is my hope that our affiliates can help us to generate media coverage all across the country that will be more accurate and give both elections officials and the public a better understanding of the need for accessible voting equipment.
In October, I attended the convention of the Illinois Council of the Blind. Much of the program was centered around accessible voting issues; two voting machine manufacturers brought machines to demonstrate to convention attendees. The local news media attended, and an article appeared in the newspaper the following day. I have decided to share the article with you in this report because I think it represents a good example of the kind of articles we need to see more of in the months to come in order to strengthen our case for accessible voting equipment. Please read it, enjoy it, and do what you can to generate similar media coverage in your own state or community.
New voting machines will aid blind
by John Reynolds (Reprinted from “The State Journal-Register,” Springfield, Ill., Oct. 10, 2004.)
Usually when someone casts a vote, the voter is the only person who knows which candidate he or she supported. That isn’t the case for Ray Campbell. When he votes, someone has to go into the booth with him to help mark his ballot.
“I have been voting for 20 years. I’m totally blind, and I’ve never voted by secret ballot. Somebody else always knows how I vote,” said Campbell, the immediate past president of the Illinois Council of the Blind.
Campbell was in Springfield this weekend for the council’s state convention. During the convention, Campbell and other visually impaired people got a chance to preview two new computer voting machines that should allow them to vote in private. Such machines will be required at all Illinois polling places by 2006 under federal law.
Currently, visually impaired people have two options when it comes to voting. Sangamon County election officials said a visually impaired person can bring someone with them to mark the ballot, or two election judges, one Republican and one Democrat, can help them mark the ballot.
While judges at polling places generally are helpful to the visually impaired, the system does present problems, Campbell said. “The whole place can hear how we vote,” Campbell said. “When my wife is voting, I can hear how she is voting, and the same with her hearing me.”
That isn’t the case with the new machines. Meghan McCormick, spokeswoman for Election Systems & Software of Omaha, Neb., said the voting machines for the blind work with the same paper ballots that every other voter uses on Election Day.
People using the machine put on a pair of headphones, and then follow the voice prompts from the computer to cast their votes, which are recorded on standard ballots. The machines can be programmed to include the names of local candidates and referendums.
McCormick added that the voting machines also can be used by people with other types of medical conditions who might have trouble manipulating a paper ballot. The machines, for instance, can have attachments that would allow a quadriplegic to cast a vote by himself or herself.
Election Systems & Software is working in conjunction with Automark to produce the voting machine. During the convention, which was held at the Renaissance Hotel in downtown Springfield, visually impaired people were able to check out an Automark machine as well as a machine manufactured by another company, Avante Systems.
Sangamon County Clerk Joe Aiello said the county is researching what machines might be best here. His office is talking to various manufacturers and also is staying in contact with the State Board of Elections.
The effort to purchase machines for the visually impaired is in conjunction with a move to acquire new voting machines for the general public. The cost for all new machines in Sangamon County could be between $1.5 million and $2.5 million. The county has received a $750,000 federal grant to help offset the costs.
Aiello said he doesn’t foresee any problems with having the machines for the blind up and running by the 2006 deadline. He said the project is one of his highest priorities.
“Who wants to go into the polling place and have somebody looking over their shoulder and cast their vote for them? That’s not what [voting] is about,” Aiello said.