This reaction has been a long time coming!  Maybe it's just me, but I feel
that the blind community has been played for suckers in the rush for
e-voting dollars.  Even if these systems were fully accessible, inaccurate
voting systems are not an improvement!  Remember, 20% of the votes that "get
lost somehow" will be the votes of people with disabilities.

*****
Jim Tobias
Inclusive Technologies
[log in to unmask]
732.441.0831 v/tty
www.inclusive.com
 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: * EASI: Equal Access to Software & Information 
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Kelly Pierce
> Sent: Sunday, May 16, 2004 3:40 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Blind voters rip e-machines
> 
> 
>     San Jose Mercury news
> 
>     Saturday, May 15, 2004
> 
>     Blind voters rip e-machines
> 
>     THEY SAY DEFECTS THWART GOAL OF ENFRANCHISING SIGHT-IMPAIRED
> 
>     By Elise Ackerman
> 
>     Mercury News
> 
>     Disabled-rights groups have been some of the strongest 
> supporters of
> electronic voting, but blind voters in Santa Clara County said the
> machines performed poorly and were anything but user-friendly 
> in the March
> election.
> 
>     ``Very few of our members were able to vote privately, 
> independently,
> despite Santa Clara County's supposed `accessible' touch 
> screens,'' Dawn
> Wilcox, president of the Silicon Valley Council of the Blind, 
> wrote in a
> letter to the registrar of voters after the March primary. 
> ``I feel this
> is an unacceptable state of affairs.''
> 
>     Concern about the security of electronic voting machines 
> has set off a
> national debate about the benefits of digital ballots. They 
> were supposed
> to enfranchise 10 million blind Americans who have never cast a ballot
> without assistance. But computer scientists have warned that 
> the machines'
> software code is uniquely vulnerable to error and fraud. The machines'
> reliability also has been questioned after a range of reports of
> mechanical glitches during the California primary and elsewhere.
> 
>     Wilcox said in an interview that she surveyed more than 
> 50 members of
> her group after hearing anecdotal accounts of Election Day 
> snafus. Only
> two members said the machines had functioned smoothly. About a dozen
> provided detailed descriptions of the problems they 
> experienced using the
> audio technology that was supposed to guide them through the 
> ballot and
> help them cast a vote in secret.
> 
>     Four voters said the audio function did not appear to work at all.
> Others waited up to half an hour for poll workers to trouble-shoot the
> devices. Sam Chen, a retired college professor, said he was happy to
> finally hear an initial message, but then the machine balked. After
> struggling for an hour, Chen asked a poll worker to cast a 
> ballot on his
> behalf. ``I wish I had voted on my own,'' he said.
> 
>     Elaine Larson, assistant registrar of voters in Santa 
> Clara County,
> said poll workers were given extensive training and written 
> materials but
> many still had trouble activating the audio equipment on the Sequoia
> Voting Systems machines. ``It was a new system that had not been used
> before,'' she said.
> 
>     Larson said she did not believe the machines 
> malfunctioned and said
> the county would try to give poll workers more hands-on 
> experience before
> the November election. She said the county also would instruct poll
> workers to set up the audio equipment before voters arrived.
> 
>     Modifications due
> 
>     Sequoia spokesman Alfie Charles said the company would factor the
> comments into future design enhancements. He said some earlier
> modifications already had been submitted for approval by 
> federal and state
> certifying bodies. ``We want to continue to make our products as
> user-friendly as possible,'' he said.
> 
>     Wilcox's survey of blind voters has roiled the disabled-rights
> community, which lobbied heavily for a federal law requiring 
> every polling
> place in every state to provide at least one electronic voting machine
> equipped for disabled voters by 2006.
> 
>     Last week, three disabled-rights organizations sued California
> Secretary of State Kevin Shelley for prohibiting the use of electronic
> machines unless they meet stringent security requirements.
> 
>     ``The secretary's decertification orders will deny voters with
> disabilities the right to vote independently, in secret and without
> third-party assistance,'' the lawsuit stated.
> 
>     Shelley has said he is concerned that electronic machines, which
> record votes digitally, are not ``stable, reliable and secure 
> enough'' to
> be used until they produce paper receipts of ballots cast.
> 
>     The report by the Silicon Valley Council of the Blind 
> shows ``the gap
> between the advertised accessibility of these machines and 
> the reality,''
> said Will Doherty, an executive director of the Verified Voting
> Foundation, an advocacy group that supports Shelley's directive.
> 
>     Survey questioned
> 
>     John McDermott, an attorney representing the American 
> Association of
> People With Disabilities, the California Council of the Blind, the
> California Foundation for Independent Living Centers and 12 disabled
> voters in the suit against Shelley, said he did not believe 
> the Silicon
> Valley survey was representative.
> 
>     Only one of the plaintiffs suing Shelley had used an 
> accessible voting
> machine, also known as touch screens. However, McDermott said he was
> confident ``most disabled individuals with visual and manual 
> disabilities
> are totally in favor of touch screens.''
> 
>     Noel Runyan, a blind voter and computer scientist who is 
> an expert in
> designing accessible systems, said touch screens are a good idea in
> theory, but they need a thorough redesign to work in 
> practice. He said the
> voting companies appeared to have ignored feedback they solicited from
> groups of blind voters as they were developing their systems.
> 
>     Voters' complaints
> 
>     Among the criticism provided by voters was poor sound 
> quality, delayed
> response time and braille that was positioned so awkwardly it 
> could only
> be read upside down. Chen, the college professor, also said the audio
> message required blind voters to press a yellow button. ``Yellow means
> nothing to me,'' Chen said.
> 
>     ``I personally want them to be decertified for this 
> election,'' Runyan
> said. ``We need to make a strong statement that all these 
> machines need to
> be redesigned on the user interface side. We've got a mistake here.''
> 
>     Contact Elise Ackerman at [log in to unmask]
> or (408) 271-3774.
> 
> -------------------------------------------------------------
>  See EASI Special October Bonus offer at http://easi.cc/clinic.htm
> EASI November courses are:
> Barrier-free E-learning, Accessible Internet Multimedia and 
> Business Benefits of Accessible IT Design:
> http://easi.cc/workshop.htm
> EASI Home Page http://www.rit.edu/~easi
> 
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-------------------------------------------------------------
 See EASI Special October Bonus offer at http://easi.cc/clinic.htm
EASI November courses are:
Barrier-free E-learning, Accessible Internet Multimedia and Business Benefits of Accessible IT Design:
http://easi.cc/workshop.htm
EASI Home Page http://www.rit.edu/~easi

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