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.
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