On Wed, 1 Aug 2001, Isaac Obie wrote:

> Hello,
> In the last few elections I voted in, they had these levels that you
> pressed. I don't understand why they couldn't simply tie tags with braille
> on them on each appropriate level. that would've facilitated easy voting
> for me.
> Isaac
>
That would work for me as well, but what about the 90% of the blind
population that doesn't read braille?

Dan Rossi
E-Mail: [log in to unmask]
Tel:    (412) 268-9081

> On Wed, 1 Aug 2001, Brent Reynolds wrote:
>
> > Hi, Mary,
> > Here's my take on the voting issue, especially as it related to my latest
> > experiences in the Atlanta area.  My only disability that would affect my
> > ability to cast a fully-independent "secret" ballot, is a total loss of
> > vision.  I have yet to even hear of a proposed voting system that would
> > permit a totally blind person to prepare and cast a fully-independent
> > ballot.  From what I know of how most public officials responsible for
> > such things regard blind people, on the rare occasions they bother to
> > think about us at all, if they did find a voting technology that was
> > totally accessible and independently usable by a totally blind person,
> > they would probably buy only one and put it in the precinct closest to
> > whatever "rehab" type agency deals with blind people.  In Atlanta, that
> > would be the Center for the Visually Impaired.  Of course, I can only vote
> > in the one precinct listed on my voter registration card.
> > That precinct votes in a church, with stepts to go up from the outside,
> > and steps to go down on the inside.  Wheelchairs would have probs in that
> > precinct.
> >
> > We used the folded paper ballot sheet with the punch card system where you
> > push the plastic-tipped stylus through the holes and knock out those
> > famous "chads" we heard so much about.
> >
> > Since 1994 I have had a policy about getting to the polls to vote and
> > getting assistance with my ballot, since I know that probably not in my
> > lifetime will I ever get to do what most Americans can take for granted
> > and can have done for the past 80-120 years, cast a "secret" ballot.
> >
> > A few days before the election, I call the headquarters of the political
> > parties in my area and ask if they have volunteers who can take people
> > with disabilities to the polls and help them vote.  In general elections,
> > I call on the Democrats one election term, and on the Republicans the
> > next.  For primaries, since Georgia is a "closed" primary state, I call on
> > the party in who's primary I have decided I wish to vote.
> >
> > I had no problems with the voting.  The lines were long and the process
> > took over two hours.  The Republican volunteer who gave the three of us
> > the ride to the polling place was an attorney, so he was a sharp fellow.
> > We were told that poll workers were not allowed to assist a voter in the
> > booth, and, of course, poll watchers and monitors from the political
> > parties are not allowed to assist voters in the booth, for reasons that
> > should be obvious.  The volunteer, who was not an official party worker of
> > any sort, helped me line the ballot up in the aparatus, read the candidate
> > list, and helped me figured out the layout of the ballot.  Was the race
> > listed in ascending alphabetical order by party name, or by candidate's
> > last name?  He would read the list, top to bottom along the punch column,
> > and then I manipulated the stylus and punched where I wanted.  If I needed
> > to write-in, I had to get the volunteer to do that.
> >
> > In the 1998 election term, I called on the Democrats for a volunteer and
> > that person was a recently retired high-school Social Studies teacher.
> > Other times, I have been able to get friends who vote in the same precinct
> > to help with the vote, and one election term, I voted by absentee ballot
> > and, of course, had to have help filling it out.
> >
> > In all these cases, I was able to vote, and was able to ensure that my
> > vote was for those candidates of my choice.
> >
> > In none of those cases can I say that I cast an independent vote
> > unassisted, and by no stretch of the imagination could it be said that I
> > cast a secret ballot.  For those of us who can go to the polls and vote
> > with no problems any greater than those experienced by the overwhelming
> > majority of voters, our biggest gripe with the system is that part about
> > having to have help in the booth whether we push buttons, pull levers,
> > punch cards, fill in checkboxes on paper, or scrawl across an electronic
> > screen.  We are denied what most Americans have long since come to expect
> > as something close to a constitutional right, that of casting an
> > independent and secret vote without the possibility of it being influenced
> > or manipulated by others, right from the point of the actually ballotng
> > process.
> >
> > Every time I call on a party for volunteer assistance to get to the
> > polling place and for help with the ballot, I always warn the volunteer
> > that Yes, I will probably vote for some candidates from his/her party, but
> > I will also vote for candidates of one or more of the other parties, plus
> > some independents, since I am an independent and never vote anybody's
> > party line, with the exception of a specific party primary.  Even then, I
> > may not vote in the primaries of the same party every election term.
> >
> > So, were there problems, beyond my bitch about that denial of a secret
> > ballot?  For me, no, for others, definitely yes.  What happened in Florida
> > happened in every state in the union.  In the very county where Vice
> > President Gore voted, something like 15,000 ballots were tossed out for
> > being spoiled, or otherwise incorrectly cast, and that county was
> > considered a heavily Republican-majority area.  It was estimated by more
> > than one source that in any given general election in a presidential
> > election year, somewhere between 1 and 2 percent of the ballots cast get
> > tossed out and not counted for one reason or another.  Estimates are that
> > at least two-million ballots were tossed out nationwide in the 2000
> > general election in the presidential race.  Unless somebody goes over all
> > two-million of those with a fine-toothed comb reminiscent to the
> > examination of the Florida vote, it is not possible to say one way or
> > another which of those two candidates "won" the "popular" vote.
> >
> > I don't expect to be able to vote an independently-cast "secret" ballot in
> > either 2002 or 2004.  The aparatus might look different and be handled
> > differently, but I'll probably still be going with a friend, or if I can't
> > arrange that, I'll be calling one of the parties and asking for a
> > volunteer.  If it's at least as good as it was in 2000, I will be able to
> > participate in the process, and will cast a vote.  I think the absentee
> > ballot option is the least independent option for a totally blind person,
> > since you have to get some sighted person to fill in the whole thing for
> > you, and you won't be able to verify your options at all.  You'll have to
> > trust the filler-in to actually mark the choices you want.
> > The Florida experience should have taught us about how lightly our elected
> > officials responsible for the balloting process in this country have come
> > to esteem their jobs in the last several years.  Election Day should be a
> > national holiday, with the same importance as Independence Day or
> > Thanksgiving Day.  Polls should be open longer, or there should be more of
> > them so they can accommodate more people at one time.  All the aparatus
> > should be accessible to all voters to cast an independent unassisted
> > ballot.  Of course, I am aware that if you build an "idiot-proof" device,
> > along will come "improved" idiots.  There will always be people who will
> > find a way to do it wrong and screw up their ballot.  Even if the machine
> > is designed to hold them captive until they get it right, they'll still
> > need to yell for help to get out of the jam.  A lot of the problems people
> > experienced in the 2000 elections were simply because they refused to
> > follow any instructions, no matter how simple they were, or how patiently
> > they were explained.  I saw more than one person try to vote in the
> > precinct where I voted and when they were told that they were not
> > registered at that location, but they needed to go to location X over on
> > Y, they got angry and bitched that they were being denied their franchise,
> > simply because they should be allowed to vote wherever the hell they
> > wanted to, not where they were registered.  The news media later got some
> > of those people claiming that they were turned away because of their race,
> > even if the poll workers who "turned them away" were of the same race or
> > ethnicity as the complainers.  I saw at least three of those in the two
> > hours I was in the lines and waiting at the rather small precinct where I
> > voted, and those poll workers mostly seemed to be smart, knowing what they
> > were doing, and they were not rude or ugly to the voters waiting in the
> > lines.  I was there late morning, to about lunch time.  Yes, some people
> > did experience real problems.  There were registrations, mostly filed at
> > the last minute, that did not get processed in time for the people to be
> > able to vote, but, then again, who told them they should consider it so
> > lightly as to wait until the last minute to register?  If it's important
> > enough to do at all, it is important enough to do it right insomuch as it
> > is possible to do it right.
> >
> >
> > Brent Reynolds
> > Random Access Internet Shell account
> > Standard disclaimers apply.
> > Email: [log in to unmask]
> >
> >
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>
>
> VICUG-L is the Visually Impaired Computer User Group List.
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>
>

--
Dan Rossi
E-Mail: [log in to unmask]
Tel:    (412) 268-9081


VICUG-L is the Visually Impaired Computer User Group List.
To join or leave the list, send a message to
[log in to unmask]  In the body of the message, simply type
"subscribe vicug-l" or "unsubscribe vicug-l" without the quotations.
 VICUG-L is archived on the World Wide Web at
http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/vicug-l.html