From: Bud Keith <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: disappointing voting experience
Date: Tue, 4 Nov 2003 19:13:04 -0500 (EST)
To: Arlington County Disabilities Advisory Commission
     <[log in to unmask]>

Yesterday, November 3, I tried to find a sample ballot on the
Arlington County web site.  I couldn't find one, so I called the
Arlington Elections Office.  The person with whom I spoke
couldn't find one either.  I was then transferred to another
person (tried hard to be helpful) who had to ask around to find
where such a ballot was hidden.  When she found it, we discovered
that it really wasn't on the web site in an accessible format,
but was in a PDF document.  When I explained that PDF documents
were not readily accessible, this person agreed to make a text
copy and email it to me.  She did so promptly, and my wife and I
had a chance to be prepared for today's elections.

We arrived at the polling station and the volunteer proudly took
us to the new voting machines.  Although there were six machines,
there was only one set of earphones, so I sat while my wife went
to vote.  First, there was confusion on how to activate the
machine.  Then, the volunteers weren't aware of the need to
adjust the volume control for the headphones.  Then when my wife
attempted to use the machine, she got to a point where the
machine told her she hadn't made a selection, but it didn't tell
her how to go about doing so.  The volunteer attempted to figure
out the system, and failed.  He then took my wife to a second
machine and found the same results.  Finally he had to resort to
helping her casther ballot.  While he was helping her, another
volunteer attempted to get a third machine to work and failed.

When it came my turn, I insisted on trying a fourth machine so
that I could be more or less aware of the situation.  I found
myself in the same stalemate as my wife and the two
volunteers.  I fiddled a bit with the machine, and discovered the
secret to the selection process.  It is not at all explained in
the audio directions.

Arlington County election officials should be ashamed of
themselves for this screw up.  What is truly obvious is the
chronic failure of all of Arlington Government; the failure to
involve knowledge citizens in the process.  If there had been
only one fairly knowledgeable and active blind person of average
intelligence, this problem could have been spotted and
resolved.  My wife and I were the first blind people in our
station, and the process took us more than an hour.

For all the money spent and all the time and conversation over
the need for blind citizens of Arlington to have the right to an
independent and private ballot, someone in the elections office
should lose their job.  It is shameful that Arlington County will
continue to pay someone for so severely screwing up a relatively
expensive but workable process.


Bud Keith


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