Hi Peter,  Gosh, fiddle d dee and land o'goeshin, at least your county
tried to help.  Just last month we had a simple special election with
only four issues to vote on.  1. Recall a Governor,  2.  Vote for a new
Governor, and cast a yes or no vote on two referendum issues.  The
election was almost delayed several months because most counties in
California  including San Diego County  had made no progress in
providing secret balloting for persons with disabilities.  Well the
courts ruled that the voting had to proceed as planned.  Well, we may
have Silicone Valley, the genius and genesis of electronic devices for
the world, but it  has not yet produced a voting devise for the
handicapped.
so we reverted, (no kept) the old system.  To vote we get a little punch
card (about 2" inches x 7 inches) and a paper clip style punch device.
Only four issues on the ballot, no big deal.  Well lets examine
reality.  To vote on the four issues there were or less than two hundred
and fifty tiny holes to select from to punch to cast your vote.  Still
no big deal!  Well to selectand vote for your canadate you had to read
in 8 Point print a list of alnost 200 canadates randomly (not
alphabetically) printed on a six by eight booklet. Well I made a mistake
and punched the wrong hole for govenor.  Voter registration said to tape
over the hole and punch the right one.  Well this blind old man (82)
could not begin to preform such a task.  I struggled to find the four
correct holes, mailed by ballot and I was able to cast a single ballot
in an special election that had one of the largest voter turn out in
many years.  In fact the wimmers and losers were known before the mail
in ballots were ever opened or counted.
MORAL"  No blind and most visually impaired voters, and other persons
with disabilities were able to cast a SECRET BALLOT.
xxxxxx
Peter Altschul wrote:
>
> 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
>
> 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


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