Well, in Forsyth County the audio feature WAS enabled on EVERY machine in EVERY
precinct. There were headphones on each and every booth. When I made a pain in
the rear of myself at a meeting, the Chairman of the Forsyth County Board of
Elections took note and made sure he had my opinions and gripes after I voted of
the 5th. He sees me as a way to help not just the Visually Impaired voters have
an easier time, but also the elderly, since so many of them have limited vision
as well.
Our Board of Elections made a HUGE effort to MAKE SURE EVERYTHING worked
perfectly. Right after the primaries, they started going to each precinct and
testing all the infrastructure. Some of the NEWEST facilities had the WORST
infrastructure. They found outlets that had no power, etc. They even hired
off-duty Forsyth County Deputies because parking at my precinct is such a
God-aweful mess that some people had to park across the street and McFarland
Road is a busy street and so the Deputies played Crossing Guard. I expect that
before the next election they will do something about the partitions. I hope
Diebold does something about the elevator bar in Review Mode. Even my
"full-sighted" husband, who is also a Software Engineer, had a little trouble
finding it. Again, that was noted to the Chairman.
I don't plan on letting him off the hook. If we are going to be using these
machines long term, then I plan on being proactive in making sure they are
usable and PRIVATE!!!
MaryB. (Who CAN be a REAL pain in the rear when the need arises.)
Brent Reynolds wrote:
> HI, Mary,
> Lots of people complained about the low partitions, or the nonexistent
> partitions between machines at many precincts, thus allowing others to see
> the screens and watch how others were voting. The partitions set up to make
> the voting booths are not a function of the electronic voting machines.
> They could easily have used those old thin curtain dividers on the pipe
> frames to separate machines, and could have still hung the thin curtains
> behind the voter to give privacy, like we had in some precincts with those
> old punch-card and paper contraptions that most of us used in the primary
> elections in August.
>
> While it was good that there was at least one fully accessible machine, with
> a keypad, a headset, and audio capabilities turned on, in every precinct, I
> told the Diebold representative that I felt that the audio feature should
> have been enabled on every single machine in every single precinct, that
> each machine should have had a keypad ready and available, and that the demo
> machine near the door should have had every feature enabled and ready to be
> demonstrated before its potential user would actually go to the machine that
> would actually cast the vote, in case anybody might want to have it
> demonstrated before using it for real.
>
> I also advised the rep that the company, and the Secretary of State's office
> should have notified everybody by means of radio, television, and print
> media outlets, that the machines are audio-output enabled and that any voter
> who wanted to use the speech output could bring the same portable headphones
> they use with any walk-around tape, radio, or CD devices which just about
> everybody has at least one of, these days.
>
> Even though at least one machine was set up for audio output, the capability
> is already built into every single machine in the state. All functions, and
> all capabilities should be active and enabled on every single machine in
> every single precinct, and thus available for anybody to use, including
> people who are not visually impaired.
>
> Reply to: [log in to unmask]
> Brent Reynolds, Atlanta, GA USA
>
> Vote YES for braille on speed limit signs.
>
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VICUG-L is the Visually Impaired Computer User Group List.
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[log in to unmask] In the body of the message, simply type
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